PM claims ‘capitalism & greed’ behind UK Covid-19 vaccine success risking row with EU

Boris Johnson risked inflaming tensions with the EU after he hailed the UK’s vaccine success as being due to “greed”. At a private meeting with Conservative MPs on Tuesday night, the prime minister said “The reason we have the vaccine success is because of capitalism, because of greed my friends.“ He later said he regretted the comments which have since been explained as a joke by government sources. During the Zoom meeting with backbencher MPs the PM praised AstraZeneca for offering their vaccine at cost and thanked the company for its work in the pandemic. He also paid tribute to the pharmaceutical industry for developing and producing vaccines at speed. The controversial comments come as EU leaders are set to decide whether to ban the exports of AstraZeneca vaccines to Britain later this week. Boris Johnson has been attempting to persuade President Macron and other European leaders to keep international borders open and prevent a vaccine trade war. Angela Merkel ha