LONDON: Britain wants to ensure that it receives all the vaccines it has ordered and paid for, Minister for the Cabinet Office Michael Gove said on Thursday after the European Union asked AstraZeneca if it could divert supplies from the United Kingdom.

"I think we need to make sure that the vaccine supply that has been bought and paid for, procured for those in the UK, is delivered," Gove told LBC Radio.

"But of course, we're always going to work with our friends and neighbours, we have to make sure that we can do everything we can to help them."

"But our priority has to be making sure that the people in our country who are vulnerable and who we have targeted for vaccination, receive those jobs in those arms," Gove said.