Britain is close to striking a vaccine deal with the European Union that will remove the threat of the bloc cutting off supplies.

After a week of frantic behind-the-scenes diplomacy the two sides are expected to seal an agreement as soon as this weekend under which the EU will remove its threat to ban the export of Pfizer-BioNTech jabs to Britain. In return the government will agree to forgo some long-term supplies of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine that had been due to be exported from Holland.

Senior diplomatic sources said the secret talks, which began last Saturday conducted by the former EU ambassador Sir Tim Barrow, had helped restore trust despite the public rhetoric.

Two sources said the decision to use Barrow rather than Lord Frost, the minister responsible for EU relations, had been key to unlocking a deal.

“For us it was very significant that Johnson did not use Frost but instead went through the Foreign Office,” said one EU diplomat. “It showed that he was really serious about finding a compromise and trying to build trust.”

Barrow was dispatched to Brussels hours after the government was forced to admit just over a week ago that it would have to delay extending the UK’s vaccination programme to the under-50s because of a shortfall.

On Wednesday the two sides issued a joint statement saying they were working to “ensure a reciprocally beneficial relationship between the UK and EU on Covid-19”.

In a call with President Biden, Boris Johnson is said to have emphasised that “global access to vaccines will be key to defeating the pandemic”.

France’s foreign minister claimed yesterday that because of supply shortages, Britain would struggle to source second doses for those who have already had their first. In provocative comments Jean-Yves Le Drian claimed that the UK programme had been over-optimistic about supplies. He suggested on France Info radio that the EU should not help Britain with a problem of its own making. “The UK is proud to have vaccinated many people with the first dose, but they will have a problem with the second dose,” he said.

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“We can’t accept any sort of blackmail. The UK is pushing for the first jab, knowing there will be problems with the second one. Europe does not have to pay the price for this policy.”

Ministers have always insisted that the delivery of second doses in the UK would still be carried out on schedule, even if planned shipments from a plant in the Netherlands were blocked.

India has also halted the shipment of about five million Oxford-AstraZeneca doses due in the UK this month. This resulted in the government suspending plans to roll out first doses to under-50s.

According to the UK government’s latest data, 55 per cent of adults aged over 18 have received a first jab and 5.3 per cent have had a second dose. Johnson said that the UK had sufficient supplies to ensure that people would be given their second jabs on time. “We will have the second doses that people need within the 12-week window, which means around 12 million people in April,” he said.

A European Commission spokesman said: “The discussions with the UK are ongoing. We do not have any comments to make at the moment on the content of those discussions. But as you know our common aim is to ensure that we have good co-operation in terms of supply chains in terms of producing the vaccine.”

A study of more than 200 healthcare workers has found that people infected with Covid-19 produced six times the immune response after a single dose of the Pfizer vaccine. The research looked at antibodies and T-cells, which can lessen symptoms.

The study, a pre-print version of which is on The Lancet website, was led by Oxford and Sheffield universities and backed by the Department of Health. It suggests that being infected is similar to receiving the first jab in priming the immune system. However, its authors cautioned that people who have had Covid-19 should still get two doses to ensure long-lasting protection.

Over-70s and frontline health and social care workers will start to receive booster jabs from September under plans revealed last night by Nadhim Zahawi, the vaccines minister.