Boris Johnson’s “mask slipped” when he made a joke about the UK’s vaccine success being down to “greed”, Ed Miliband has said.
The PM made the remark during a virtual meeting with Tory MPs this week.
But following a speech in London, Shadow Business Secretary Mr Miliband said the story of the pandemic was not one of greed, but of the British people “looking out for each other.”
Asked about the PM's comments, the former Labour leader said: "I think it is, sort of, 'the mask slips', isn't it?
"Because it's not the way I interpret what's happened with the vaccine."
He said the government was “embarrassed” about the vaccine success being down to “proper industrial strategy…of business and government working together on this vaccine development.”
He said: “I think what's happened during this crisis is that the British people have looked after each other. I think it's been not about greed, it's been about looking out for your neighbour, looking out for your friends, obviously looking out for your relatives.”
Mr Miliband added: “I think there's something important in this, which is that greed isn't the way to rebuild our country. That's not the answer for our country. … The answer for our country is the solidarity that we've seen over the last year and what I see is that the institutions we have and the way our country is run is so at odds with solidarity.
"And the big fight of British politics in the next few years in my view is going to be how do we match the solidarity that the British people have shown in the way we run our country?”
The PM reportedly bragged to MPs on Tuesday that the UK's vaccine success was down to 'greed' and 'capitalism'.
He told he told members of the Conservative 1922 Committee: "The reason we have the vaccine success is because of capitalism, because of greed my friends."
He later told the Tory backbenchers he 'regretted' the statement and repeatedly asking them to forget he had said it.
