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.’’

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.