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EU threatens ban on Covid vaccine exports to UK

Brussels - Relations between Britain and EU have become increasingly fractious in the context of Brexit.

Britain has a legal right to AstraZeneca's Covid-19 vaccine, which it helped to fund and develop, health minister Matt Hancock on Wednesday, in a sharp rebuke to criticism from the European Union that Britain has not been exporting the shots.

European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen earlier threatened to ban exports of COVID-19 vaccines to Britain to safeguard scarce doses for its own citizens, airing frustration over a lack of deliveries from AstraZeneca in Britain.

Relations between Britain and the EU have become increasingly fractious in the context of Britain's departure from the bloc's orbit at the start of the year, while the EU is lagging behind Britain with its vaccine rollout.

Asked about the issue of vaccine supplies from the EU, Hancock said that he worked with European colleagues all the time but the shot, created with the University of Oxford, was developed with funding from the British government.

"We set up the supply chain, not just here in the UK but indeed, we helped set up the supply chain in the EU," he said at a news conference.

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