Watch: Lib Dems say UK should have joined EU vaccine scheme

It’s pretty hard to dispute that the EU’s vaccine procurement scheme has been nothing short of a shambles this year, with the bloc failing to strike deals quickly enough with pharmaceutical companies, leading to dosage shortages for member states. The disaster has led to even the Continent’s most ardent Europhiles, from Guy Verhofstadt to the German press, praising the UK’s post-Brexit vaccine procurement.

Amazingly though, it appears there are some in the UK who still feel that Britain should have joined the EU’s woeful vaccine scheme. On Politics Live today, Layla Moran, the Lib Dems’ Foreign Affairs spokeswoman, suggested instead of striking out on our own, we should have used our negotiating expertise to help the EU strike better deals.

Mr S can’t imagine this one playing well on the doorstep. Moran’s implication appeared to be that Britain should have risked the lives of its citizens to prop up an incompetent trade bloc…

Watch here:

Should the UK have joined the EU vaccine scheme?

“If we were part of that... maybe it wouldn’t have happened in the way that it did, we have expertise in negotiating contracts"

Lib Dem MP Layla Moran responds to ex-PM adviser Nick Timothy#politicslive https://t.co/PKRy3MXexL pic.twitter.com/pxuDt1b07q

— BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) March 4, 2021