Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson asked the United Kingdom’s security services to draw up plans to raid a Covid-19 vaccine factory in Leiden after the European Union blocked the export of 5 million AstraZeneca vaccines in March 2021, sources told the Daily Mail.

According to the newspaper’s sources, Johnson was “enraged” that the EU was putting British lives at stake to catch up on its own struggling vaccine rollout. He only abandoned the idea of sending troops to get the vaccines the UK government bought from AstraZeneca from the Leiden factory when diplomats warned that it could severely damage relations with the EU and jeopardize vaccine supplies from other EU plants.

“The EU had basically sequestered 5 million doses of our vaccine. Of course, the PM was enraged - they were putting British lives at risk to make a political point and distract from their own failings,” one source told the Daily Mail. “He ordered officials to look at all options for responding, and that did include asking the security services to look at whether there were any options for physically going and taking the vaccines from the Netherlands and bringing them here.”

The second source confirmed that Johnson was “infuriated” and considered all response options. “It went well beyond trade retaliation; it was diplomatic, security, everything,” the source said. “He felt he was fighting for British lives, and at one point, he did ask whether there were military options for just going and getting these vaccines.”