BRITAIN will have access a coronavirus vaccine from September, the chief executive of pharma giant AstraZeneca has claimed, despite concerns from within the project that it will not be ready by then.

Pascal Soriot told The Andrew Marr Show yesterday that British people will get first access to the vaccine from the autumn.

The pharmaceutical firm, which is working with Oxford University, says it has secured the first agreements for at least 400 million doses of the vaccine.

But a leading member of the project said yesterday that the lower transmission of Covid-19 in the community now leaves the trial with only a 50 per cent chance of success.

And while Mr Soriot confirmed that the government had ordered 100 million doses, he warned that the autumn timeframe depended on whether an Oxford trial worked before the transmission rate lowers further.

“The vaccine has to work and that’s one question, and the other question is, even if it works, we have to be able to demonstrate it,” he said.