Vaccine: Merkel and Macron 'jealous of UK' says Habib

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Leading Brexiteer Ben Habib claimed that Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel were “torn apart by anti-British jealousy”. Mr Habib’s remarks come amid a growing vaccine crisis in the European Union. Officials leading Brussels have been widely criticised for the slow pace of its vaccination programme, compared to the UK where 40 percent of the adult population has now been offered a first jab.

The co-founder of Unlocked and former MEP told talkRADIO that the leaders in Germany and France were letting their anti-British bias get in the way of saving lives.

Mr Habib pointed out that there are “20 million AstraZeneca vaccines sitting in fridges across the EU unused at the moment because of all the nonsense Merkel and Macron were spouting”.

Mr Macron previously said that the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine was “almost ineffective” in the over-65s.

Angela Merkel also refused to approve the vaccine for over-65s in Germany, until this week.

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Mr Macron has since backtracked on his remarks, saying that he would happily receive the AstraZeneca vaccine if that was what he was offered.

His government also announced an apparent U-turn by approving the jab for some older people.

Mr Habib ripped into the two leaders, saying: “It is almost treasonous if you think about it.

“We have a global pandemic, economies have been trashed and here you have the leaders of two of the most advanced economies in the world trashing a vaccine that is actually life-saving.”

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The former MEP added: “It could help people get back to normal much faster. Merkel and Macron were displaying a deep antipathy to Britain.

“What really gets them is that this is a British vaccine that got out there first, that the UK got it out there first.

“They were absolutely torn to bits with that anti-British jealously that forced them into saying this.”

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He said that Boris Johnson would have been “taken to task” if the British Prime Minister had publicly trashed a vaccine created in the EU.

TalkRADIO host Julia Hartley-Brewer added: “The fact that both the French and German leaders went out in public and said this is not a good vaccine, it’s not safe, it’s not effective.

“They are eating their words now but could you imagine if Donald Trump would have said this about vaccines, or if Boris Johnson had said we are not going to export vaccines, the accusations would have come thick and fast about his behaviour.

“But when it’s the EU they get given a free pass!”

Earlier this week, the Italian government blocked the export of an Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine shipment to Australia.

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