Sir Nick Clegg: 'EU has let itself and millions of Europeans down' over Covid vaccine

13 April 2021, 08:31

Sir Nick Clegg told LBC's Nick Ferrari that the European Union "let itself down and millions of Europeans down" over the continent's Covid vaccine rollout.

Nick questioned the former Lib Dem leader on his view of British voters' attitudes towards the EU, after a Bloomberg poll found clashes between the UK and the bloc over vaccines had boosted support for Brexit.

Almost two-thirds of adults believe that being outside the EU helped the UK’s vaccination program to succeed, the research found.

"How have you seen the EU and UK squabble over vaccines?" Nick asked.

Sir Nick Clegg responded, "I think the EU has let itself down, more importantly has let millions of Europeans down by not providing people with vaccines on the scale and with the speed that has been possible in the UK and elsewhere, and that's elicited, quite understandably, a lot of anger.

"Never mind what people say to opinion pollsters in the UK, across the EU people are waiting for their vaccines impatiently."

He continued, "I hope they catch up... Covid anywhere is Covid everywhere.

"Clearly something has gone very badly wrong indeed in recent months in the EU."

Sir Nick Clegg posited that between the European Commission in Brussels and the member states who were responsible for distributing doses"something got lost in translation."