In a steep escalation of the EU’s fight to secure vaccine supplies, Brussels had said it would trigger clauses in the Northern Irish Protocol in the EU-UK withdrawal agreement to control shots moving across the open Border between the State and the North. It said this plan aimed to prevent the movement of vaccines onwards into the rest of the UK via a Northern Ireland “backdoor”, while preserving the capacity to allow shipments into the North.

It comes after the bloc invoked part of the Northern Ireland Protocol in an attempt to stop vaccines made in the EU from getting into the UK through the back door.

The protocol, which is part of the Brexit deal, allows goods from the EU to be exported to Northern Ireland without checks.

However the EU triggered Article 16 of the protocol tonight to slap temporary export controls on vaccines sent to Northern Ireland.