Broken-down British High Minister Boris Johnson has said he ordered militia chiefs to plan a raid on a Dutch manufacturing facility in March 2021 to get 5 million COVID vaccines that the European Union had threatened to bar from being exported to Britain.
Johnson said the deputy chief of Britain’s defence group at the time, Lieutenant Fresh Doug Chalmers, had in actual fact useful him a raid using minute boats to pass the Channel and navigate Dutch canals might per chance be conceivable – nonetheless warned him of diplomatic repercussions.
In accordance with Johnson, Chalmers – who has since retired from the militia – in actual fact useful him it might per chance per chance now not be conceivable to procure the mission undetected and that “if we’re detected we are able to grasp to cowl why we’re successfully invading a protracted-standing NATO ally”.
“I secretly agreed with what all of them thought nonetheless did not have to thunder aloud: that your total thing used to be nuts,” Johnson said in an extract from his memoirs that used to be printed in Saturday’s Day to day Mail newspaper.
Britain’s defence ministry had no prompt comment on the yarn. A spokesperson for Chalmers – who now serves as chair of the authorities’s committee on standards in public life – said he used to be unable to comment on confidential security discussions.
The COVID vaccines under dispute had been developed by the College of Oxford and AstraZeneca nonetheless doses had been manufactured by subcontractors within the Netherlands and Britain.
In March 2021, the vaccines had been broadly passe in Britain nonetheless doses made at the Dutch plant had been peaceful pending EU approval.
Both Britain and the EU had contracts with AstraZeneca for vaccines and the EU sought to care for aid finished vaccines at the Dutch plant for its possess future use.
Johnson – who won election in December 2019 on a promise to procure drawn-out talks to leave the EU – said he believed EU officials had been acting under stress from French President Emmanuel Macron.
In March 2021, the vaccines had been broadly passe in Britain nonetheless doses made at the Dutch plant had been peaceful pending EU approval.
Both Britain and the EU had contracts with AstraZeneca for vaccines and the EU sought to care for aid finished vaccines at the Dutch plant for its possess future use.
Johnson – who won election in December 2019 on a promise to procure drawn-out talks to leave the EU – said he believed EU officials had been acting under stress from French President Emmanuel Macron.
