Matt Hancock celebrates ‘British success’ of Oxford vaccine approval – despite first doses coming from Europe

Initial batches of coronavirus jab coming from outside domestic supply chain

The approval of the Oxford coronavirus vaccine has been hailed a “British success story” by the health secretary, despite the first doses coming from Europe.

Matt Hancock described the approval by Britain’s medicines regulator as “good news for the whole country”, with the rollout to begin on 4 January.

“This is a real British success story,” he told BBC Breakfast on Wednesday morning.

“It’s a combination of the science at Oxford University and the UK vaccines network, the government funding through the National Institute for Health Research, AstraZeneca, and the NHS.”

More than 80 per cent of the 100 million doses AstraZeneca will produce for the UK will be made in the country, but the first batches will come from outside the domestic supply chain.

“The initial supply, and it’s a little bit of a quirk of the programme, actually comes from the Netherlands and Germany,” Ian McCubbin, the manufacturing lead for the Vaccine Taskforce, said at the beginning of December.

Mr McCubbin said at the time he expected the European vaccines to be delivered before the end of 2020, which could help to minimise any disruption from Brexit.

Mr Hancock has previously made erroneous suggestions about vaccine clearance that were subsequently refuted.

Speaking shortly after the Pfizer/BioNTec jab was cleared for use in early December, Mr Hancock claimed the UK got the first Covid-19 vaccine faster because of Brexit.

He was later contradicted by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Authority, when its chief executive, June Raine, said the process was undertaken under the terms of European law, which remains in force until the completion of the Brexit transition at the end of 2020.

The health secretary also boasted of a “Brexit bonus”, but Boris Johnson twice declined to claim any role for EU withdrawal in speeding up the approval of the jab.

At the time, Gavin Williamson, the education secretary, was accused of “jingoistic nonsense” after suggesting the UK secured approval of a coronavirus vaccine before close allies France, Belgium and the United States because it is a “much better country”.

Asked on LBC radio whether Brexit had meant the UK was able to approve the vaccine ahead of other countries, Mr Williamson replied: “I just reckon we’ve got the very best people in this country and we’ve obviously got the best medical regulators – much better than the French, much better than the Belgians have, much better than the Americans have.”