During the Covid-19 pandemic, then-UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson allegedly considered a military operation on Dutch soil to take 5 million Covid-19 vaccines that were being blocked by the EU, British media report.
Mid-lockdown in March 2021, Johnson reportedly asked the security services to look into "military options" for retrieving millions of AstraZeneca vaccines from a Dutch plant in the city of Leiden, after the EU threatened to prevent the doses from being sent to the UK, wrote The Times, confirming reports by the Daily Mail.
"He would indeed have asked the British security services to investigate that option," VRT's UK correspondent Lia van Bekhoven said on Flemish radio.
According to Van Bekhoven, a political game between the EU and the UK was the basis of the request. "London had purchased 5 million vaccines from AstraZeneca but the European Union blocked their export; the Member States needed them themselves."
Not 'theft'
The situation was the result of a shortage of certain ingredients at AstraZeneca, which has a factory in London as well as Leiden. The pharmaceutical company had agreed to deals with both the EU and the UK but was unable to serve both parties.
Since the EU did not receive the requested number of vaccines, they suspected Johnson's government of disrupting exports from the London factory and in turn blocked the export of vaccines from Leiden. The political fallout led Johnson to consider carrying out a military operation – which he did not see as "theft" as he already paid for the vaccines.
In the end, however, it did not come to military action, van Bekhoven explained. "Diplomats had warned Johnson that this action would so deteriorate ties with the EU that the United Kingdom would never again be able to get vaccines from the EU."
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Johnson is appearing before the investigative committee that is examining his Covid-19 policy today and on Thursday after dozens of ministers, advisors and scientific employees have already been questioned under oath.
"The expectation is that he will certainly be asked about how serious the plans were for a possible raid of the factory in Leiden," Van Bekhoven said. But she added that Johnson will have to answer for numerous other matters as well: the late decision to impose lockdowns and other measures, as well as why he and his government subsequently did not adhere to those lockdowns.
While the investigation will not have any legal consequences for Johnson, she said the impact – particularly on his reputation – should not be underestimated. "He wants to go down in history as the man who achieved Brexit. But I would not be surprised if he goes down in history as the man who failed to show leadership."
