The EU’s vaccine shambles descended further into chaos today as it emerged the bloc has not yet signed a deal to buy British-made Novavax jabs which passed phase III trials yesterday with a 90% success rate. Ministers from the EU commission only completed ‘exploratory’ talks to buy Novavax, which is being made in a Tesside … Read more
Brussels will unveil dramatic new powers tomorrow that could see the shipment of millions of vaccine doses to Britain being blocked within days. As the row over the EU jabs shortage intensifies, the European Commission will establish a mechanism to allow member states to refuse vaccine exports. The move will heighten fears about whether Britain’s … Read more
A £215,000-a-year BBC journalist was today embroiled in an impartiality row after claiming Boris Johnson had ‘berated’ the EU over the coronavirus vaccines dispute. Europe editor Katya Adler, 48, who is based in Brussels, prompted fury with a tweet after the EU tried to requisition tens of millions of vaccine doses made from the UK. … Read more
How did the UK end up as one of the world’s leading countries on the vaccine roll-out? The UK is one of the world’s leading countries when it comes to the speed of the roll-out of its coronavirus vaccination programme – a fact made all the more impressive given where the nation started when the … Read more
How grand, how admirable it sounded back in June when the European Union set up a Covid-19 vaccine-buying programme to pool the purchase power of all member states. This pan-European approach would, it was claimed, ‘ensure fair and equitable access for all across the EU’. Under the terms of the programme, individual countries were forbidden … Read more
What would happen if the EU forced Pfizer to stop delivering Covid vaccines? UK could miss out on 3.5m doses between now and February and rely totally on AstraZeneca’s plan to hit 2m per week by Monday Eurocrats proposed plans to stop vaccine exports could cut Britain’s supplies Pfizer – which manufactures doses in Belgium … Read more
Furious Tories today warned that the EU will ‘poison’ relations for ‘a generation’ if it follows through on extraordinary threats to block Pfizer vaccines going to the UK – as ministers insisted they are ‘confident’ supplies will be maintained. Amid a shambolic rollout across the bloc, Brussels has demanded drug firms give them early warning … Read more
Mastercard is blasted for ‘greed’ and ‘opportunism’ by charging British card users FIVE TIMES the fees on items ordered from EU then blaming Brexit Mastercard is hiking fees for UK shoppers buying from EU-based companies The European Union brought in a cap in 2015 amid fears over hidden fees Mastercard says the cap does not … Read more
A double-dip recession in the Eurozone is ‘increasingly inevitable’ due to Covid-19, with France among the countries most seriously hit, experts have warned. The slowdown in Eurozone business activities intensified in January as the pandemic continued to batter the economy, a key survey showed on Friday. The closely watched PMI index compiled by IHS Markit … Read more
Despairing Heathrow passengers queued up for hours to get through passport control today as the Covid border situation worsened as one asked ‘are they making sure we all get infected before entering the UK?’. The lines to get through passport control were so long staff were said to have handed out free water to exhausted … Read more