After a tense evening in which the EU tried to block the flow of vaccines across the Irish border, the UK says it can carry out its immunisation programme ‘exactly as planned’.

Last night saw the European Union invoke Article 16 of the Northern Ireland Protocol, effectively placing a hard border in the region, angering London, Belfast and Dublin.

Faced with widespread condemnation and accusations of covering up for their own failures, Brussels performed a U-turn just a few hours later and said they not override part of the Brexit agreement for the island of Ireland.

Speaking to Sky News today, Cabinet Office Minister Micheal Gove said: ‘We’re confident that we can proceed with our vaccine programmes exactly as planned.

‘Last night the Prime Minister talked to President von der Leyen, the President of the European Commission, and made clear that we need to have the contracts that have been entered into honoured properly.

‘And it was made clear that that supply would not be interrupted so we can proceed with our plans and make sure that our so far highly-successful vaccination programme can continue.’

Gove said the EU recognises it ‘made a mistake’ in its short lived to block vaccine exports into Northern Ireland, whose open border helps keep the region’s unique and delicate political balance in check.

Despite criticism from the World Health Organisation, the EU is pushing ahead with imposing controls on vaccines manufactured within member states, which it is feared could hinder the UK’s access to further supplies, particularly to the Belgian-made Pfizer jab.

Brussels has also demanded doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine manufactured in British plants, to solve its supply shortage issues, as member states have been forced to pause or delay their rollouts.

But today Gove told reporters: ‘The Prime Minister was very clear, we’ve entered into contractual arrangements with AstraZeneca and Pfizer and we expect those arrangements to be honoured.

‘And President von der Leyen was clear that she understood exactly the UK Government’s position, so we expect that those contracts will be honoured, we expect that vaccines will continue to be supplied.’

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