BORIS Johnson has insisted he is “very confident” in the UK supplies of the coronavirus vaccine as the European Union demanded that tens of millions of jabs made in Britain be diverted to the continent to make up a shortfall in supplies.

Stella Kyriakides, the bloc’s Health Commissioner told AstraZeneca that it was contractually obliged to send vaccinations produced in Oxford and Keele in Staffordshire to EU member states.

“We reject the logic of first come first served. That may work at the neighbourhood butchers but not in contracts,” she declared.

AstraZeneca has enraged the EU27 by admitting it can deliver only a quarter of the 100 million doses it had promised for the first quarter of the year. Production issues at European plants are being blamed but the bloc insists doses made elsewhere like Britain should make up the shortfall.

EU leaders are coming under public pressure because of the comparatively slow rollout of vaccines across member states. Pfizer/BioNTech, which has an even bigger vaccine-production deal with the EU, is also experiencing delays from a factory in Belgium.

Ms Kyriakides denied the bloc would undertake retaliatory action and impose an export ban on vaccines leaving the EU but said the contract signed with AstraZeneca, which worked with Oxford University on its vaccine, referred to two factories in the UK.

“There is no hierarchy of the factories. You are aware in the contracts there are four factories listed but it does not differentiate between the UK and Europe. The UK factories are part of our advance purchase agreements and that is why they have to deliver.

“We expect the doses that are in an advance purchase agreement to be delivered to the European Union,” she insisted.

Asked about the EU’s “seeming demand” for some of the UK’s coronavirus vaccine, the Prime Minister did not want to get dragged into a cross-Channel spat, telling a Downing Street press conference: “All I can say is that we’re very confident in our supplies, we’re very confident in our contracts, and we’re going ahead on that basis.” The UK has agreed a deal with AstraZeneca for 100m doses of its vaccine with agreed delivery schedules.

Earlier, Pascal Soriot, AstraZeneca’s Chief Executive, pointed out that supply chain “teething issues” were fixed in the UK ahead of the bloc because Britain signed a contract three months earlier.

“So, with the UK we have had an extra three months to fix all the glitches we experienced,” he explained.

In an interview with Italy’s La Repubblica newspaper, the pharmaceutical chief said “we are basically two months behind where we want to be” in supplies due to manufacturing issues in Europe, citing problems in a Belgian plant.

He rejected the suggestion the firm was selling its vaccines to the highest bidder “because we make no profit everywhere” under the agreement signed with Oxford University.

Meanwhile, production at a vaccine site in Wales has resumed after it had to be stopped for hours while police and Army investigated a suspect package.

All staff were evacuated from the site in Wrexham, which employs around 400 people.

The global pharmaceutical and biotechnology company provides fill-and-finish services for the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, the final stage of putting the vaccine into vials.