Welsh MP Vaughan Gething labelled “rhetoric” from “both sides” responsible for simmering tensions over the European Union’s threats of a vaccine blockade on Question Time last night. His comments led to host Fiona Bruce questioning “coming from where?” But the Welshman went on to acknowledge that much of the dispute was rooted in the European Union’s commercial disagreements with AstraZeneca. He later added Brits should be “proud” of the rollout success but more needs to be done to help other countries.
The Welsh politician said: “I think everyone just needs to take a step back and calm down.”
He added: “I think the rhetoric from some of the comments and the commentary around this is really unhelpful for all of us.”
His words prompted Question Time host Fiona Bruce to ask “coming from where?”
Mr Gething went on to point the finger at both the European Union leadership as well as the U.K. government as well as “members of the public” for being responsible for the simmering tensions brought forward by threats of a vaccine blockade by the bloc which since last night cooled as the EU u-turned on their threats.
JUST IN: What ARE they playing at? AstraZeneca row blows wide open as EU fails to use 41% of jabs
But he identified how much of the dispute is rooted in the commercial disagreements between the European Union and AstraZeneca and called on the EU to get on and vaccinate its citizens with their piled up vaccine stocks.
He stressed how it would be important for the UK to vaccinate its own population before helping others and that Brits should be “proud” of the rollout success.
But the Welshman went on to say that while the UK have ordered plenty of vaccines for ourselves the country needs to strike “a balance” in helping out other countries across the world in their fight against the virus.
Mr Gething’s comments come despite the fact the British government is committing £548m to the global vaccine initiative Covax, making it the largest single donor to the programme, which will allow more than 180 countries to have fair, early access to COVID-19 vaccines.
READ MORE: EU faces MORE vaccine chaos as Novavax deal delayed – UK has already secured 60m doses
Earlier Ursula von der Leyen levelled a warning to AstraZeneca as the bloc continues to claim AstraZeneca are not honouring their contracts.
She told a Brussels news conference: “Companies have to honour their contract to the European Union before they export to other regions in the world. And this is, of course, the case with AstraZeneca.”
She insisted the company would have to play “catch up” before it is allowed to export doses outside of the bloc.
She hinted that Britain could fall foul of her draconian mechanism because we haven’t exported any doses to the bloc.
