The former Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, has revealed he considered invading the Netherlands during the height of the Covid pandemic.

Boris Johnson writes in his memoir that he looked at the possibility of launching an aquatic raid on a warehouse in Leiden to grab vaccines he believed belonged to the UK by right as they had been developed in the country.

Quite what King Willem-Alexander would have made of a skirmish from one of his country’s oldest allies isn’t known. There’s also no word on whether Queen Elizabeth II, then Head of the Armed Forces, would have been consulted ahead of any raid. Her Late Majesty was good friends with the Dutch Royal Family and had a particular bond with Princess Beatrix, mother of King Willem-Alexander, and her country’s queen from 1980 until 2013.

In his book, Unleashed, being serialised in The Daily Mail ahead of publication next month, Boris Johnson says he hatched his plan in March 2021 and spoke to leading military figures about an undercover raid on the warehouse where five million doses of the vaccine were being stored.

He said he was told it was possible but would be detected and was warned ”we will have to explain why we are effectively invading a long-standing Nato ally.”

Boris Johnson goes on to say that he realised the scheme was unviable but writes that he was desperate as he believed it was his duty to secure vaccines.

In another part of his book, the former Prime Minister says he was asked to talk to the Duke of Sussex ahead of his departure as a working member of the Royal Family in early 2020.