NICOLA STURGEON has a duty to challenge the Tory government over its “staggeringly selfish” stance on providing coronavirus vaccines to poorer nations, campaigners have said.

Scottish members of the People’s Vaccine Alliance made the plea to the First Minister as global leaders, including Prime Minister Boris Johnson, prepare to take part in the G20 summit in Rome.

A new report claims that, of the 1.8 billion Covid-19 vaccine doses that have been promised by richer nations, only 261 million jabs have actually been delivered.

The Dose of Reality report also said that Britain had taken 500,000 doses from the Covax programme, a worldwide initiative aimed at ensuring fair access to vaccination.

Jamie Livingstone, the head of Oxfam Scotland, accused Britain of pilfering jabs meant for poorer nations.

He warned that the current approach is “staggeringly selfish and could cost lives at home and abroad, saying: “The First Minister has a duty to speak out and call for the UK government to compel pharmaceutical companies to share their life-saving vaccines and technology with the rest of the world.”

The SNP leader is also being urged to back a Holyrood motion from Labour’s Sarah Boyack which demands support for plans to waive intellectual property rules and insist the vaccine knowledge is shared.

Health Secretary Humza Yousaf said that the Scottish government continues to engage with Westminster to consider how to help accelerate global vaccination, pointing to multimillion-pound funding provided for the global South from Scotland. 

A government spokeswoman said that over 10 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines have been delivered, as part of a pledge to donate 100 million overseas by June 2022, claiming development funding of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine has enabled over a billion doses to be delivered non-profit around the world.