Realizing how controversial their comments could be if they were made public, Johnson withdrew them almost immediately, according to sources, saying “I’m actually sorry to say that … forget I said it.”
Johnson’s spokesmen have declined to provide CNN with a comment.
A spokesman for the opposition Labor Party told CNN: “The idea that acts of selfishness … have made us go through this crisis seems very strange: it is difficult to find out where the prime minister is coming from.”
The timing of these comments could be worrisome for the prime minister as the European Commission prepares to set its plans for tougher control of exports of Covid-19 vaccines produced within the bloc.
The Brussels vaccine plan has been hampered by supply and distribution problems.
Plans are also expected to include new competencies that will allow the EU to withhold deliveries to countries that do not reciprocally export vaccines to the EU.
Leaders from the 27 EU member states will meet on Thursday to discuss the Commission’s recommendations.
Leaders in Germany and Ireland have already urged caution over export measures that would be targeted at countries.
The UK, which chose not to participate in the EU’s vaccination strategy, has rolled out its program to vaccinate citizens noticeably faster than the rest of the continent. At the national level, many have marked this as a result of Brexit and an example of what can be done now that the country is free from the bureaucratic yoke of the EU.
The European Medicines Agency has been criticized for its slowness in approving vaccines, so other EU countries have turned to Russia and China to fill gaps in the supply of vaccines through unilateral purchase.
The relative success of the UK has been shameful for the EU. Any complaints that the UK is not playing fair or suggestions for retroactive action are easy to raise as Brussels ’petulance, an attempt to blame others for their own failures.
However, Johnson’s greed comments could prove useful for a Commission trying to unite member states and paint the UK as the bad guy.
Which begs the key question: why did Johnson say that?
Those present at the meeting have presented theories that the prime minister was “clearly joking” in a room of friends, as he had spent the entire meeting “praising AstraZeneca for not seeking benefits”, to suggestions that “he was talking about Boris leaving confront ”and stumbled upon the discussion of how the left-wing opposition in the Labor party opposes any private investment in the National Health Service.
“I think he was talking about his hands, and he suddenly remembered that he was the prime minister,” a deputy present at the meeting told CNN.
There is no denying, however, that the timing of his observations is poor.
Vaccine deployment has been a rare success in Johnson’s response to the pandemic.
The UK still has the highest number of coronavirus deaths in Europe.
Anything that impedes the vaccination program and delays its plans to get the British out of the closure could seriously damage the prime minister and his government at a time when they cannot afford a serious blow, let alone what the European Union is delivering. .