UK ex-PM Johnson says he planned raid on Dutch factory to get COVID vaccines

London: Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said he ordered military chiefs to plan a raid on a Dutch factory in March 2021 to secure 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 staff at the time, Lieutenant General Doug Chalmers, had told him a raid using small boats to cross the Channel and navigate Dutch canals would be possible – but warned him of diplomatic repercussions.

According to Johnson, Chalmers – who has since retired from the military – told him it would not be possible to carry out the mission undetected and that “if we are detected we will have to explain why we are effectively invading a long-standing NATO ally”.

“I secretly agreed with what they all thought but did not want to say aloud: that the whole thing was nuts,” Johnson said in an extract from his memoirs that was published in Saturday’s Daily Mail newspaper.

Britain’s defence ministry had no immediate comment on the account. A spokesperson for Chalmers – who now serves as chair of the government’s committee on standards in public life – said he was unable to comment on confidential security discussions.

The COVID vaccines under dispute were developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca (AZN.L)