DUP leader Edwin Poots accused the EU of doing “demonstrable harm to every individual in Northern Ireland”.

Boris Johnson said the new vessel, worth up to £200 million, will reflect the UK's "burgeoning status as a great, independent maritime trading nation".

Labour former frontbencher Jon Trickett said the wedding was “a good way to bury this week’s bad news” on Mr Cummings’ testimony, the spread of the Indian coronavirus variant and the row about funding of the Downing Street flat.

Vaccination rates are accelerating across Europe, and, with them, hopes for a rebirth of the tourism industry.

If the UK government refuses to do this, it risks isolation at next month’s G7 summit.

“Media generally abysmal on Covid but even I’ve been surprised by how many hacks have parroted Hancock’s ‘herd immunity wasn’t the plan’ when ‘herd immunity by September’ was literally the official plan in all documents/graphs/meetings."

Chants of “Boris Johnson, shame on you” could be heard.

"The inequitable distribution of vaccines is not just a moral outrage, it is also economically and epidemiologically self-defeating," WHO said.

The new contract will entail not only the production of the vaccines but also make sure that all essential components should be sourced from the EU.