TORY minister Gavin Williamson has sparked a row after claiming the UK got access to the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine first because it’s a “much better country”.
The Education Secretary told LBC that the UK has “the very best people”, adding they are better than those in France, Belgium or the United States.
Explaining to Nick Ferrari why he believes the UK was the first to approve the Covid-19 vaccine, Williamson said: “Well 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 have, much better than the Belgians have, much better than the Americans have
“That doesn’t surprise me at all because we’re a much better country than every single one of them aren’t we.”
On social media many people noted that the comments sounded like something Donald Trump might say.
This is the moment Gavin Williamson told @NickFerrariLBC the UK was the first to approve a vaccine because “we’re a much better country”pic.twitter.com/1PtkOJ1CeB
— Rachael Venables (@rachaelvenables) December 3, 2020
The station's James O'Brien posted: "Listening to Gavin Williamson & losing the will to live. Perhaps that’s the plan."
The political editor of the Liverpool Echo, Liam Thorp, joked: "If we were a much better country I’m not sure we would have Gavin Williamson at the cabinet level of government."
Gavin Williamson flying in the face of the Conservatives' Global Britain project & demonstrating a strange Trumpian arrogance about Britain's place on the world stage.
— Best for Britain (@BestForBritain) December 3, 2020
This vaccine is a triumph of international cooperation created by two Turkish-German immigrants. https://t.co/dHm7GgNv1f
The Best For Britain campaign also weighed in, commenting: "Gavin Williamson flying in the face of the Conservatives' Global Britain project & demonstrating a strange Trumpian arrogance about Britain's place on the world stage.
"This vaccine is a triumph of international cooperation created by two Turkish-German immigrants."
It comes after several Tories claimed the UK got quick approval of the vaccine because of Brexit.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock claimed in an interview yesterday: "It is absolutely clear that because we’ve left the EU I was able to change the law so that the UK alone could make this authorisation decision. So because we’ve left the EU, we’ve been able to move faster.”
However multiple fact checkers found this statement was not correct.
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