Boris Johnson said the UK's successful vaccine rollout was due to "greed" and capitalism.- The UK prime minister made the comments in a private meeting with colleagues.
- The comments risk further inflaming tensions with the European Union.
The UK's successful vaccine rollout was due to "greed" and "capitalism," Prime Minister Boris Johnson told colleagues in a private meeting Tuesday.
"The reason we have the vaccine success is because of capitalism, because of greed my friends," Johnson said, according to the Sun newspaper, during a closed meeting of Conservative members of Parliament.
Johnson was addressing colleagues at a private meeting after holding a
According to the report, Johnson later said, "Actually, I regret saying that," and repeatedly asked his colleagues to "forget" that he had made the comments.
Downing Street did not respond to requests for comment, while opposition MPs condemned the comments.
As of Tuesday, the UK said more than 28 million people had been given first doses of a coronavirus vaccine.
Some of those present at the meeting tried to contextualize the prime minister's comments, with one telling the BBC that the prime minister's comments about "capitalism" and "greed" were in fact a joke directed at the chief whip, Mark Spencer, who was eating a sandwich at the time.
-Barry Sheerman MP (@BarrySheerman) March 23, 2021
"What an obnoxious comment on this day of all days Boris Johnson tells his MPs in private that the UK has been successful in the vaccine war due to 'capitalism & greed,'" Labour MP Barry Sheerman tweeted.
Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran said the comments were "not helpful."
-Layla Moran (@LaylaMoran) March 23, 2021
The prime minister's comments risk further inflaming tensions with the European Union, which have threatened to boil over in recent weeks.
Officials in Brussels have threatened to blockade EU-made vaccines bound for the UK in a bid to bolster the bloc's faltering vaccine rollout.
Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, on Wednesday is expected to announce plans to allow member states to block exports of vaccines bound for countries that aren't exporting their own homemade vaccines, Politico reported.
EU leaders are set to rule on whether to approve the plan Thursday, but the chances of the plan winning approval appeared to decrease Tuesday after Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, said she would not support a full export ban.
"You have to be very careful about imposing blanket export bans, and you have to look very carefully at the supply chains," she said.
UK Home Secretary Priti Patel on Monday was not drawn on details of the story but broadly defended the prime minister's comments.
"I didn't hear those comments, so I'm not going to get involved in that, but the role of the free market, having absolutely a diversity in terms of different organizations that we've been able to work with on vaccinations, is incredibly important," Patel told LBC Radio.