Full investigation 'must be allowed' into China Covid laboratory leak claims, says UK vaccines minister

Charles Parton, a former diplomat who worked in China and senior associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi), told Times Radio that if the virus had escaped a lab it would have been an accident. He suggested efforts should be made to "keep the temperature down whatever is discovered". Mr Parton added: "It may be that scientists are clever enough without access to Chinese laboratory records to work out fairly conclusively over time how it came to come out and maybe it was a leak."If that's the case, and it's a big if, we should nevertheless not be too blaming because we have got to look to the future and try to get Chinese cooperation."