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Britons who favored Brexit point to their country’s more rapid vaccination rollout as a benefit of leaving the bloc and its slower, collective processes.

Tom Tugendhat, a Conservative member of British Parliament who initially opposed Brexit but voted reluctantly for the deal, said on Twitter that the signals from the vaccine dispute were a cause for concern.

“Whatever your view on Brexit, it is now completely clear how we’re seen by the EU — we’re out,” he said, and “the good will is sparing.” He called for a policy that “rebuilds relationships.”

Ms. von der Leyen and the Commission were quick to back down, insisting that a mistake had been made and that any vaccine export controls would ensure that the Brexit agreement, which gave assurances that there would be no new border checks between Ireland and Northern Ireland, would be “unaffected.” That protocol essentially treats Northern Ireland as part of the European Union’s regulatory space.

But it was clear that the move to bring in export controls was aimed at preventing any vaccine doses produced within the European Union from being sent into Britain across the open border on the island of Ireland.

The British took it as an aggressive act. Mr. Johnson called Ms. von der Leyen and said afterward that he had “expressed his grave concern about the potential impact.”