Boris Johnson: We considered 'water attack' on Netherlands to seize Covid vaccine | Coronavirus

Boris Johnson reflected on a “water attack” on a Dutch warehouse to seize Covid vaccines as the pandemic was at its peak in his memoirs.

According to an excerpt from his forthcoming book Unleashed published in the Daily Mail, the former prime minister discussed the plans with senior military officials in March 2021.

The AstraZeneca vaccine was at the center of a cross-Channel dispute over exports at the time and Johnson believed the EU was treating the UK “with malice”.

Johnson said he had “commissioned some work to examine whether it might be technically feasible to launch a water attack on a warehouse in Leiden in the Netherlands and take what was rightfully ours and the UK urgently needed.” “.

Deputy Chief of Defense Staff Lt. Gen. Doug Chalmers told the prime minister the plan was “certainly feasible” and would involve the use of rigid inflatable boats to navigate Dutch canals.

“They would then meet at the destination; input; “Secure the hostage assets, disperse them with a tractor-trailer and make your way to the English Channel ports,” Johnson wrote.

However, Chalmers told Johnson it would be difficult to carry out the mission undetected, meaning the UK would have to “explain why we are actually invading a long-standing NATO ally”.

Johnson concluded: “Of course I knew he was right, and I secretly agreed with what they were all thinking, but didn't want to say it out loud: that the whole thing was crazy.”

Elsewhere in the published extracts, Johnson denied eating cake at what he called “the weakest event in the history of human celebration”, which was held to mark his 56th birthday during the Covid lockdown.

He did not see or eat any cake at the event on June 19, 2020, he said, adding that it “never occurred” to him or then-Chancellor Rishi Sunak that the Partygate birthday event was “in any way against the “Rules” are violated. .

He wrote: “Here is what actually happened that day. I briefly stood at my seat in the Cabinet Room, where I have meetings throughout the day, while the Chancellor and some staff said happy birthday.

“I didn’t see any cake. I didn't eat flower cake. If this was a celebration, then it was the weakest event in the history of human celebrations. I had just gotten over Covid. I didn't sing. I didn’t dance.”

Downing Street previously admitted staff “briefly” gathered in the Cabinet Room for what was said to be a surprise meeting for Johnson, organized by his now-wife Carrie.

Johnson was the first prime minister to receive a punishment for Partygate while in office, although an investigation by former senior official Sue Gray found that neither Johnson nor Sunak knew about the incident in advance.

In the excerpts from his autobiography, Johnson also said he believed he “might have made it” while in intensive care with Covid without the “skills and experience” of his nurses.

Johnson spent several days in intensive care with Covid in April 2020. He described not wanting to fall asleep on his first night in the intensive care unit, “even in case I never woke up.”

After being discharged from hospital, the then Prime Minister spent time with his now wife Carrie at Checkers and recalled clapping for the NHS on a Thursday evening.

“I clapped with deep emotion, because my lungs were telling me that I had been through something very bad, and if it hadn't been for (his nurses) Jenny and Luis, who had been fiddling with those oxygen tubes all night with all their skill and experience, I think I might have made it,” he wrote.

Upon his admission to the intensive care unit, Johnson said he “started dozing but didn't want to sleep – partly in case I never woke up, or in case they decided to secretly perform a tracheostomy without telling me.” to communicate”.