WEALTHY European countries were slammed today for squabbling over their Covid-19 vaccine supplies when poorer nations could be years behind in inoculating their citizens.

It comes after the European Union withdrew threats to put checks at the Irish border in a bid to prevent vaccines made on the continent from entering Britain.

In a panic over its supplies, the EU threatened to invoke Article 16 of the Northern Ireland Protocol and staked a claim to Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine doses made in Britain — claiming that the pharma firm was reneging on a deal to supply EU nations.

Israel, Britain and the UAE are leading in inoculating against Covid-19, while the majority of the world, including EU countries, trails behind. There is currently no data available for most African, Asian and South American countries.

Global Justice Now director Nick Dearden said the European Commission’s Article 16 threat had been “completely wrong,” but that the “biggest vaccine border is between rich countries and the global South.”

He told the Morning Star: “The EU would be more justified in demanding Britain diverts some of its doses out of solidarity if it was prepared to do the same for all countries.

“Most countries face waiting years to get sufficient doses.”

The charity called for the sharing of science and patents to help boost vaccine production.

Labour’s shadow Cabinet Office minister Rachel Reeves said that using Northern Ireland as a political football was “absolutely wrong.”

 “Vaccine nationalism, in the EU or anywhere else, is totally counter-productive,” she said.

“We are only going to succeed in defeating this virus if all countries have access to vaccines, otherwise it will mutate and come back in different forms.”