The British health secretary has said that Britain has an “exclusive” contract with Coronavirus developer AstraZeneca while the European Union’s is based on a best efforts basis.

Matt Hancock told the Financial Times that both sides were looking to resolve a dispute surrounding vaccine delivery.

But he added that the bloc should not try and suspend the export of vaccines from a site in the Netherlands to Britain, due to the nature of the contractual agreements they have with the British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant.

“I believe that free trading nations follow the law of contracts,’’ he told the newspaper on Thursday.

“They have a best efforts contract and we have an exclusivity deal.

“Our contract trumps theirs. It’s called contract law, it’s very straightforward.’’

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On Wednesday, the EU tightened controls of its vaccine exports further, allowing shipments headed almost anywhere to be halted.

The move triggered warnings from London, a major recipient of EU-produced jabs.

Member states including Belgium and Ireland have voiced concern about the potential backlash to blockades.

Britain and the EU also issued a joint statement on Wednesday evening, stating that they were working on a win-win situation to expand vaccine supply for all our citizens.