The so-called “vaccine war” has intensified after the EU was accused of erecting a “hard border” between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic to stop the province becoming a back-door to Britain as a way of circumventing an export ban on Europe-made jags.

After the EU introduced controls that could block the export to the UK of millions of Covid vaccine shots made in Europe, it invoked Article 16 of the Northern Ireland Protocol, a controversial section of the UK-EU trade deal, which means it can unilaterally introduce border controls on goods.

An incensed Arlene Foster, the leader of the Democratic Unionists, described the EU’s move as an “incredible act of hostility".

The First Minister of Northern Ireland said: “By triggering Article 16 in this manner, the European Union has once again shown it is prepared to use Northern Ireland when it suits their interests but in the most despicable manner; over the provision of a vaccine which is designed to save lives.”

She added: "At the first opportunity, the EU has placed a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland over the supply chain of the coronavirus vaccine.”

Michael Gove, the Cabinet Office Minister, spoke to Maros Sekcovic, the Euorpean Commission’s Vice President, to express the UK’s concern over a lack of notification from Brussels about its invoking of Article 16 of the Northern Ireland Protocol, which allows either side to the trade deal to suspend parts of it unilaterally.

A spokesman for Mr Gove said the UK Government would now be “carefully considering” its next steps.

Labour called on the EU to reverse its decision, which it said was “deeply destabilising” and had undermined the huge effort to make the controversial Protocol work.

“Unilateral actions like this do nothing to aid the stability in Northern Ireland which the Protocol was designed to preserve,” said Louise Haigh, the Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary.

“The European Union must remember the Protocol depends on joint working and they share a responsibility to uphold that. They must think again and revoke this action,” she added.

The vaccine supply row intensified as -

*trial results showed a single jab vaccine from pharmaceutical firm Jansen, owned by Johnson & Johnson, is 66% effective against Covid-19. The development came just 24 hours after Novavax announced trials showed it had an effective vaccine, which gave nearly 90% protection. The UK has secured 30m doses of the Jansen jab and 60 of the Novavax.

*the European Medicines Agency authorised the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine for all adults throughout the EU.

*the anniversary falls this weekend of the first patients treated for coronavirus in the UK at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle.

As expected, Brussels announced the introduction of a “vaccine export transparency mechanism,” which will be used until the end of March to control vaccine shipments to non-EU countries and to ensure that any exporting company based in the EU first submits its plans to national authorities.

It comes in the wake of a major row with pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, which 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.

Valdis Dombrovskis, the European Commission’s Executive Vice President, told a Brussels press conference: “Today, the Commission has adopted an implementing regulation making the export of certain products subject to an export authorisation. This regulation concerns the transparency and export of Covid-19 vaccines.”

Earlier, AstraZeneca published a redacted version of its contract with the EU, which the bloc said was important for “accountability”.

The contract mentioned that the firm would use “best reasonable efforts” to use European plants, including two in the UK, as production sites for vaccines destined for the EU.

In Edinburgh at the daily Covid briefing, Jeane Freeman, the Scottish Health Secretary, said the SNP administration would press ahead with publishing records of historic vaccine supply next week against the wishes of Whitehall.

She explained the Scottish Government would publish the number of doses it had expected to receive and the numbers it had actually received rather than anticipated future deliveries, although she was unable to say how often details would be released.

The minister said she had discussed the issue in a conference call with the other health ministers on Thursday night and that Matt Hancock, her English counterpart, had “understood” the Scottish Government’s position, although she would not say if he had objected.

Earlier, Downing St refused to be drawn on Edinburgh’s position and declined to say if the UK Government would seek to withhold vaccine supply data from the Scottish Government. Mark Drakeford, the Welsh First Minister, made clear his government would abide by London’s request, which Lucy Frazer, the Home Office Minister, insisted was made on the grounds of security.

Ms Freeman told the daily briefing the material on supplies would not be forward-looking and so not risk breaching and commercial confidentiality agreements.

She said publication would aid transparency but was also aimed at putting an end to what she suggested was the UK Government’s hypocritical briefing of Scotland’s vaccine numbers to use against the SNP.

She said: “The bottom line here is that the UK Government has repeatedly briefed the statistics on how much vaccine has been allocated and delivered to Scotland, so it’s not credible for them one day to tell journalists what these figures are and another day tell us that putting out those figures is a matter of national security.

“That circle really doesn’t square. We’ve held off publication in the past at their request but that’s no longer tenable. The public has a right to clarity and we will give them that.

“We’re not talking about future supplies, we’re talking about known supplies, and that is exactly the right thing for us to do,” declared the Health Secretary.

Asked if she would oppose Scotland’s vaccine being diverted to the EU, she said: “I want the supplies that are due to come to Scotland to come to Scotland. That’s perfectly straightforward. Of course, I do. I’m the Health Secretary for Scotland; that’s what I want; that’s my job.

“My job is to make sure I can vaccinate as many adults in our population - 4.45million - as quickly as I possibly can. So, I want supplies to come to Scotland.”