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

28/9/2024 18:07

        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".
        
        Neither Britain's defence ministry nor Chalmers - who currently serves as chair of the government's committee on standards in public life - had an immediate comment on Johnson's account.