A TORY MSP has been called out for claiming the Covid vaccine roll-out was a benefit of Brexit.

Craig Hoy was a panellist on BBC Newsnight in Paisley alongside Labour MP Michael Shanks, Scottish Greens co-leader Patrick Harvie, SNP MP John Nicolson and LibDem MP Wendy Chamberlain.

He was asked by an audience member about what he thought a benefit of Brexit was to which he responded: “One of the benefits was during Covid,  the fact that we managed to acquire and develop so much of the vaccine and roll it out here in the United Kingdom.”

When the audience broke out into nervous laughter and shook their heads saying the suggestion was “not true” he defended himself adding: “That is true.

"We weren’t part of the EU programme. The UK innovated, it was the best of British science innovation that we developed the vaccine. It was the best of British trade and diplomacy that we acquired so much not just for ourselves but for the developing world.”

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The audience member then took back the mic and said it was a “dubious claim that has been seriously challenged” before asking Hoy whether he could explore any other benefits.

To more giggling, Hoy said: “We’re now joining the Trans-Pacific partnership looking at rapidly growing markets in the Asia Pacific region, Latin America, which we can now export to.”

Harvie then pointed out Hoy had supported “pulling out of the biggest market on your doorstep” in the EU.

“Well actually you want to pull out of the biggest market on your doorstep which is the rest of the UK, Patrick,” said Hoy in response.

The claim about the vaccine roll-out being a benefit of Brexit has been disproven by several fact checks.

SNP Westminster health spokesperson Amy Callaghan criticised Hoy for pushing a "widely discredited argument".

She told The National: "The vaccine rollout was a success that we were all very glad to see, but Craig Hoy is being economical with the truth in pushing a widely discredited argument that the success was a result of Brexit.

“In actuality, we can see the negative impact Brexit is having on Scotland's health service - from chronic staff shortages to our economy suffering an estimated £1.6 billion cut that could have been invested in our NHS."

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The UK became the first country in the world to authorise the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine in December 2020 but when Matt Hancock suggested it was because the UK had left the EU that he was “able to change the law so the UK alone could make this authorisation decision”, he was proven to be wrong.

The decision on authorisation came from the UK’s independent Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) which has long worked in tandem with the European Medicines Agency (EMA) deciding which drugs are safe for use.

When the UK was part of the EU, the EMA had areas of jurisdiction that meant only it could make decisions about certain types of medicine, including vaccines. National regulators like the MHRA couldn’t get involved.

But when the UK left the EU on January 31, 2020, the country entered the “transition period”, which means the European regulations it adopted during its time in the trade bloc were still in effect until the end of 2020, including the rule that says vaccines generally must be authorised by the EMA instead of national regulators.

It was also discovered that under European law, the UK was able to act independently to approve the vaccine in an emergency.