NOW FRANCE ACCUSES UK OF BLACKMAIL

Vaccine row deepens as minister hints at blocking our 2nd doses

France accused Britain of ‘blackmail’ over the cross-channel jabs war last night – and suggested Brussels could sabotage the UK’s rollout because it lacks stocks of second doses.

In another escalation, Jean-Yves Le Drian, the French foreign minister, claimed Britain’s vaccine success had been exaggerated because its strategy had focused on giving as many people as possible their first dose.

The astonishing intervention came as British officials and eurocrats try to defuse a row over who has first refusal over astraZeneca jabs produced in a factory in the netherlands.

Mr Le Drian told the France Info radio

‘Europe shouldn’t pay the price’

station: ‘ We cannot play blackmail. I hope we are going to come to an agreement, it would be absurd to have a vaccine war between the UK and europe.

‘You can’t be playing with a bit of blackmail like this, just because you hurried to get people vaccinated with a first shot, and now you’re a bit handicapped because you don’t have the second one.’

‘europe does not have to pay the price for this policy,’ he added, warning that the anglo-Swedish drug giant faces a draconian export blockade unless it ‘fulfils its signed commitments with the eU’.

a Government spokesperson declined to comment on Mr Le Drian’s claims, although Boris Johnson had said earlier this week that trade blockades would chill investment in europe.

It is the latest bitter attack on Britain’s vaccination drive by the French government, which is under pressure at home over its own slow rollout that has jabbed just 13.8 people for every 100.

This is below the EU average of 14.1 – and well below the UK’s 46.7 per 100.

French europe minister clement Beaune last month claimed Britain was taking ‘a lot of risks’ spacing out doses over a period of 12 weeks, despite clinical evidence showing that a single jab offers high levels of protection.

But Thierry Breton, the French EU commissioner, warned the european commission will press ahead with its new jab-grabbing powers unless more vaccine exports reach the continent from Britain.

He singled out astraZeneca, which is making its dose on a not-for-profit basis, as being ‘a problem’.

‘We have the tools and will make sure everything stays in europe until the company will come back to its commitments,’ said Mr Breton. Speaking after a video call with EU leaders on Thursday, French president emmanuel Macron said he backed stopping astraZeneca jabs leaving for the UK, despite having queried its effectiveness in the elderly just two months ago.

He said that out of the 120million astraZeneca doses ordered by the EU, only 30million had been delivered.

The British strategy uses two different vaccines – the PfizerBionTech jab, of which 20million doses have so far been imported from Belgium, and the OxfordastraZeneca one.

Britain believes a significant number of its astraZeneca supplies will come from the Halix plant in the Dutch city of Leiden.

It is hoped that talks between Britain and the european commission will bear fruit in the coming days. another round will be held on Saturday.

a spokesman for the EU executive would only confirm they are ‘ongoing’, while British officials declined to comment.