France accuses Britain of ‘blackmail’ over COVID-19 vaccine deliveries

Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government claims the AstraZeneca plant in the Netherlands is part of the British vaccine supply chain. (Reuters)

• The latest EU-UK row is about an AstraZeneca plant in the Netherlands

PARIS: France’s foreign minister on Friday accused Britain of “blackmail” against the European Union, saying the UK was under pressure because it lacked doses for second vaccine shots.
“You can’t be playing like this, a bit of blackmail, just because you hurried to get people vaccinated with a first shot, and now you’re a bit handicapped because you don’t have the second one,” Jean-Yves Le Drian told France Info radio.
The latest EU-UK row is about an AstraZeneca plant in the Netherlands, which Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government claims as part of the British vaccine supply chain.