A surprising revelation from Boris Johnson: a sea raid to seize vaccines

In his book Unleashed, former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson shares a surprising anecdote to highlight what he sees as a blockage on the part of the European Union. In a recent publication in the Daily Mail, he reveals that in March 2021 he planned to carry out ‘a sea raid’ on the Netherlands to recover Covid-19 vaccines.

A bold plan

Johnson explains that after two months of fruitless negotiations with the European Union, he concocted a plan to obtain five million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine, carefully stored in a Dutch warehouse. The idea for this audacious operation came up in a discussion with British Army Lieutenant-General Doug Chalmers, who told him that small boats could cross the Channel and navigate Dutch canals, while warning him of the potential diplomatic consequences: ‘If we are detected, we will have to explain why we are, in effect, invading a long-standing NATO ally.’

Justified Anger?
In the extract shared by the Daily Mail, Johnson confides, ‘Of course I knew he was right, and I secretly agreed with what they all thought, without daring to say it out loud: it was all nonsense.’ He admits to having been frustrated enough to contemplate such a clandestine operation, explaining that ‘the European Union treated us with malice and spite’.

The vaccines in question, developed by Britain’s Oxford University in partnership with AstraZeneca, had been manufactured by subcontractors based partly in the Netherlands. The former Prime Minister points out that these five million doses, kept in an EU factory, were intended for export to the UK, but had not been able to leave the country. He went so far as to say that the European Union had ‘kidnapped our vaccines’, illustrating the tension that existed at the time between the UK and the EU.

A landmark episode in UK-EU relations

This revelation adds a new dimension to the tumultuous relationship between the UK and the EU, reflecting the frustrations experienced by Johnson and his government during the health crisis.