Shadow foreign secretary repeats false claim covid vaccine was ‘one of the Brexit benefits’

The Tory MP said ‘we would not have been able to roll out that vaccine as quickly as we did’

Tory shadow foreign secretary Wendy Morton has incorrectly said that Britain becoming the first Western country to approve a Covid vaccine was a benefit of Brexit. 

Speaking on BBC Politics Live today, Morton repeated the incorrect claim made by then-Health Secretary Matt Hancock in December 2020 that Brexit enabled the UK to approve the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine more quickly.

Morton said: “During covid, we would not have been able to roll out that vaccine as quickly as we did… and that was one, one of the benefits of Brexit.”

When asked by presenter Jo Coburn, whether the Conservatives’ record on Brexit was one to be proud of, the MP for Aldridge-Brownhills responded: “I tell you what our record is, we got Brexit done”, as well as claiming the covid vaccine was one of its benefits. 

Lib Dem MP Layla Moran mocked Morton’s comment that the Tories ‘got Brexit done’, saying, “While trashing the economy”. 

In reality, the UK was able to approve the vaccine on 2 December 2020 because of EU law.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) decision was taken in accordance with EU legislation, which allows member states to grant temporary authorisation for a medicinal product in response to the spread of infectious diseases. 

This legislation applied to the UK until the end of the transition period on 31 December 2020.

She also expressed that she is worried Keir Starmer is “trying to inch us back into the EU through the back door”. 

A YouGov poll published last week found that 55% of Brits support rejoining the EU, while the same percentage believe the country was wrong to vote for Brexit in 2016.

Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward