Michael Gove said that Britain had an “absolute assurance” that vaccine supplies promised by Astrazeneca would be delivered in full and ruled out allowing any to be diverted to the European Union.
The Cabinet Office minister said that supplies would be sufficient to ensure that the roll-out remained “precisely on track” in the UK. Helping other EU nations with shortfalls would have to wait until the “effective acceleration” of the UK vaccination programme had been delivered, he said.
Mr Gove said that the British-Swedish company had promised to honour its delivery schedule with the UK despite pressure from the European Commission, which has suggested that vaccine doses made in Britain should help to make up a shortfall in supplies from the company’s plants on the
