Latest updates: Boris Johnson made comments in Zoom call with Tory MPs that the UK’s successful vaccine programme was thanks to ‘greed’ and ‘capitalism’
- ‘Greed’ and ‘capitalism’ behind vaccine success, Johnson tells MPs
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Good morning. When Boris Johnson makes false claims, as he does regularly in parliament, he is notoriously unwilling to retract them. But last night, when he made an infelicitous comment on a private Zoom call with Tory backbenchers, he withdrew it almost immediately – even though at the time he was being much more honest than he often is.
This is what he said:
The reason we have the vaccine success is because of capitalism, because of greed, my friends.
Related: Covid: ‘greed’ and ‘capitalism’ behind vaccine success, Johnson tells MPs
The prime minister always acknowledges the strong success we’ve had in terms of the vaccine, not just the rollout, which is incredible, but also our ability as a country to develop the vaccine, the role that pharmaceutical companies and science and technology has played in that.
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 organisations that we’ve been able to work with on vaccinations, is incredibly important.
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