Nearly two-thirds of Britons believe the success of the UK’s vaccine roll-out has been down to Brexit amid huge anger at EU ‘hostility’ in jabs row
- Some 62% of those polled believe Brexit had helped the jab programme speed
- 67% believe that the EU has been ‘hostile’ towards the UK during the vaccine row
- 54-46 split in favour of staying out of EU if there was membership vote tomorrow
Almost two-thirds of Britons believe that the UK’s vaccine success was aided by Brexit, according to a new poll today that shows widespread anger at the EU.
Some 62 per cent of those polled believe that Brexit had helped the jab programme which has seen more than 30 million people in Britain inoculated, far in advance of the numbers on the continent.
And even more, 67 per cent, believe that the EU has been ‘hostile’ towards the UK during the vaccine row, with just 11 per cent believing that the bloc behaved like a friend of ally.
The poll, carried out by JL Partners for Bloomberg, also found a 54-46 split in favour of staying out of the EU if a referendum on rejoining was held tomorrow.
It comes after a massive row over the availability of AstraZeneca vaccines engulfed the EU and Britain int he early months of the year, with Brussels threatening to block exports of the AZ jab.
It comes as it was revealed people in their 40s will be invited for their Covid-19 vaccinations from tomorrow after the Government hit its target to inoculate priority groups.
Those in their late 40s are expected to get their jabs first as the next phase of the rollout kicks off after a ‘record-breaking day’ for second doses yesterday, with figures showing 475,230 vaccinations in the previous 24 hours.
Ministers had promised all 32million over-50s and people with chronic conditions would be offered jabs by April 15 – a target they are expected to smash two days early which would allow younger people to be jabbed.
Scientists are even considering whether to offer priority jabs to regular travelers who are exempt from quarantine rules, with diplomats, Premier League footballers and hauliers among those to possibly be vaccinated before schedule.
In contrast, Europe is int he middle of a third wave of cases, a situation exacerbated by its slow vaccine programme.
At the start of April Europe’s vaccine roll-out was condemned for being ‘unacceptably slow’ and blamed for ‘prolonging the pandemic’ by the World Health Organisation.
‘Vaccines present our best way out of this pandemic … However, the rollout of these vaccines is unacceptably slow’ and is ‘prolonging the pandemic’, WHO director for Europe Hans Kluge said at the time.
He added that Europe’s outbreak was ‘more worrying than we have seen in several months’ and urged leaders to speed up the process by ramping up manufacturing, reducing barriers to administering vaccines, and ‘using every single vial we have in stock, now.’
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