The drugs manufacturer took the unprecedented step of making Covid jabs at cost, giving a huge boost to the worldwide inoculation drive. As the landmark billion figure was hit, the Prime Minister hailed AstraZeneca for playing a leading role in protecting the planet from the virus.

       His praise came after repeated attacks by the EU on the Oxford vaccine.

       The Prime Minister's official spokesman said: "It's obviously a fantastic achievement and we know that the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine will, and has, saved countless lives around the world.

       "By making it available we've ensured it can be distributed to as many countries as possible to save as many lives as possible."

       The Government has been left seething about the EU's attempts to undermine confidence in the vaccine since the start of the year.

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       In January, French President Emmanuel Macron claimed the AstraZeneca vaccine was "quasi-ineffective" for over-65s.

       A number of EU countries also suspended the use of the jabs after scare stories about the risk of blood clots.

       One official said: "The European leaders who trashed the AstraZeneca vaccine have blood on their hands.

       "We now know what we all suspected is true, that they did it out of spite for Britain because of Brexit."

       Speaking to Politico, they added: “When the history books are written, they’ll say these people were directly responsible for the deaths of thousands in developing countries who won’t take AZ because of their anti-vaxx scare stories.”

       Mr Macron's comments and those by other EU leaders were blamed for slow take up of the vaccine on the continent.

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       There are concerns the remarks are also having a damaging impact in poorer countries, which are reliant on the AstraZeneca jab for their inoculation programmes.

       Brussels and AstraZeneca have been embroiled in a standoff for months over the number of jabs being produced for the bloc.

       The European Commission has accused AstraZeneca of failing to produce the number of vaccines it promised in its contract.

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       The drugmaker had committed to do its best to deliver 300 million doses by the end of June, but production delays led it to revise this to 100 million vaccines.

       Brussels is taking legal action against AstraZeneca over the delays in shipments.

       Today, AstraZeneca said it is hoping to settle the legal dispute with the European Union.

       "We're hopeful in the next few weeks we will have a settlement," Ruud Dobber, the company's executive vice president said.

       Britain has just donated its first batches of spare AstraZeneca doses to developing countries.

       The UK made a pledge to donate 100 million of its excess vaccine doses to poorer nations at the G7 summit in Cornwall in June.

       Nine million of that total is expected to be shipped to countries by the end of September.

       Five million will be distributed via the World Health Organisation's Covax scheme and another four million bilaterally.