The ex-prime minister was said to be “enraged” after the EU threatened to prevent Covid vaccine doses from entering the UK

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Former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson asked military advisers to prepare plans to raid a Dutch Covid-19 vaccine plant to retrieve 5 million AstraZeneca doses, the Daily Mail has reported, citing diplomatic sources.

Johnson was “enraged” by a spat with the EU after Brussels threatened to prevent doses of the vaccine from being sent to the UK from the plant in March 2021, according to the outlet on Sunday.

At the time, the EU was embroiled in a dispute with the Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical company over the rollout of the vaccine. AstraZeneca had said production issues meant it could only deliver about one-quarter of the planned stock to the EU, and had refused to divert supplies from its factories in the UK.

This prompted Brussels to threaten to ban exports of the vaccine from its own territory, which European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen claimed was necessary to ensure “Europe gets its fair share.”