'UK got the vaccine first because we're a much better country,' says Williamson | Full interview

Gavin Williamson tells LBC the UK approved a Covid vaccine first because ‘we're a much better country’ than France, Belgium and the US.

The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine was approved for use in the UK on Wednesday by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), paving the way for mass vaccination to start as early as next week.

The jab has been shown in studies to be 95% effective and works in all age groups but needs to be stored at minus 70C - a factor which the Prime Minister admitted will provide "immense logistical challenges" when it comes to distribution.

Mr Williamson told Nick Ferrari at breakfast today: "I just think we have the very best people in this country and we've got the best medical regulators. Much better than the French have, much better than the Belgians have, much better than the Americans have.

"That doesn't surprise me at all as we're have a much better country than every single one of them, aren't we?"

Nick pushed Mr Williamson to answer whether Brexit has had an impact on the UK approving the vaccine, however he did not provide a clear answer.

"I just being able to get on with things, deliver it and with brilliant people in our medical regulator making it happen means that people in this country are going to be the first ones in world to get that Pfizer vaccine," he said, praising the "brilliant clinicians" in the regulator that have "made it happen."

Mr Williamson has already received backlash on Twitter for his comments to LBC's Nick Ferrari, with Green Party MP Caroline Lucas branding him "pathetic".

She wrote: "This from a Government minister - it’s pathetic. The kind of thing you’d hear in the playground. Maybe that’s why he’s Education Secretary."

Former Green Party MEP Molly Scott Cato wrote: "This is the sort of thing that gets your promoted under this Tory government No need for competence, intelligence or compassion".

Labour politician and former MEP Seb Dance also took to Twitter to respond to the education secretary, implying the comments were of a childish nature: "He later added that they also smell of wee and that they’re big poo poo heads."

He added a baby face and milk bottle emoji to emphasise his point.

Speaking from Downing Street on Wednesday, the Prime Minister made no such comments and instead said the "searchlights of science" had picked out the "invisible enemy" in getting the vaccine to the public.

Mr Johnson praised scientists for performing "biological jiu-jitsu" to turn the virus on itself and create the drug.

The first 800,000 doses are expected to be rolled out next week, and with two jabs needed per person, 400,000 Britons will be vaccinated.

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