‘It’s closer to home than you think’: Tearful Nadhim Zahawi reveals his uncle was killed by coronavirus before he could receive vaccine as he promises to get jab to Britain’s most vulnerable in emotional GMB interview
- Vaccine minister Nadhim Zahawi appeared on ITV’s Good Morning Britain today
- He told Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid the UK’s high death rate was ‘painful’
- Mr Zahawi said the issue was ‘close to home’, revealing his uncle died from Covid
- He had been entitled to a vaccine, but caught the disease and ‘didn’t make it’
Britain’s vaccine minister revealed his uncle died with coronavirus in an emotional interview where he promised to vaccinate the country’s most vulnerable and protect the whole nation.
Nadhim Zahawi appeared on ITV’s Good Morning Britain today to answer questions from presenters Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid about the country’s ongoing pandemic response.
Mr Zahawi, 53, was grilled about the UK’s high death toll, with more than 100,000 now dead, and told Piers and Susanna the issue was ‘painful’ and ‘closer to home than you think’.
When asked what he meant by that, an emotional Mr Zahawi replied: ‘I lost my uncle last week to Covid.
‘But you’re right, it is grim and horrible, but our way out of this is the vaccination programme.
Nadhim Zahawi appeared on ITV’s Good Morning Britain today to answer questions from presenters Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid about the country’s ongoing pandemic response
‘It makes me angry, but it makes me determined to make sure we vaccinate the most vulnerable people in our country, protect them as quickly as possible and then protect the whole nation.
‘That is our way out of this, that is, ultimately, what we will do and I promise you that I will make sure that happens.’
Piers and Susanna offered condolences to the minister, asking if he had a vaccine or had been entitled to get one.
Mr Zahawi said: ‘He was entitled to one, sadly, he got Covid before he got the vaccine.
‘Obviously you have to wait 28 days until someone recovers before you can vaccinate them and he didn’t make it.’
His pledge to vaccinate Britain’s most vulnerable came amid warnings that the EU will ‘poison’ relations for ‘a generation’ if it follows through on extraordinary threats to block Pfizer vaccines going to the UK.
Ministers insisted they are ‘confident’ supplies will be maintained, but amid a shambolic rollout across the bloc, Brussels has demanded drug firms give them early warning when exporting Covid jabs to countries outside the 27 member states, including tens of millions of doses destined for Britain.
Mr Zahawi insisted this morning that the UK’s huge push to get the four most vulnerable groups covered by mid-February will not be derailed.
But the sabre-rattling incensed senior MPs, with health secretary Jeremy Hunt slamming ‘vaccine nationalism’ and saying the EU must not block supplies that have been bought ‘legally and fairly’.
Meanwhile, there is another row raging after two German newspapers claimed the EU’s regulator could refuse to give the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab full approval, with officials anonymously briefing its efficacy for pensioners was just eight per cent.
However, the claim was branded ‘absolutely incorrect’ and ‘unsubstantiated’ by the pharmaceutical company – and No10 sources told MailOnline is was ‘rubbish’.
Mr Zahawi, 53, was grilled about the UK’s high death toll, with more than 100,000 now dead, and told Piers and Susanna the issue was ‘painful’ and ‘closer to home than you think’
One Whitehall source told Playbook it was the kind of tactics ‘you expect from the Russians’.
Mr Zahawi also told GMB: ‘We don’t know where this unsubstantiated report came from, it’s not true, this eight per cent figure is complete nonsense.’
Tory MP Damian Collins suggested the briefing was connected to wrangling between the EU and AstraZeneca – which is based in the UK, whereas Pfizer has a manufacturing hub in Belgium – over access to supplies. ‘Either way it is dangerous and irresponsible and only helps the anti vaccine movement,’ he said.
Mr Zahawi told Sky News: ‘I’m confident they [Pfizer] will deliver the quantities we need to hit our mid-February deadline and beyond that. Pfizer will deliver to us. I’m sure they will deliver to the UK, EU and the rest of the world. I’m confident that will be able to vaccinate the entire adult population by the Autumn.’