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FCO's Sir Simon McDonald stating UK decision not to join EU procurement scheme was a "political decision" does not sit well with No10 response on 26 March, when PM spox said "absolutely no ideology involved" in not joining in.
In fact, the reason No10 gave for not participating was a "mix-up" which meant UK gov did not get emails from the EU about the scheme - designed to jointly procure not just ventilators but PPE too.
The spox added that it had been clarified by the EU that the UK could join in and "we'll consider doing so in future rounds". "There is no blame attached here", they added on 26 March.
Either way, the UK procured extra ventilators and has not run out of capacity in the NHS during the crisis so far. There is a different situation when it comes to PPE (as we know), which it seems the EU scheme did include: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_20_476
More on that here: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/13/uk-missed-three-chances-to-join-eu-scheme-to-bulk-buy-ppe
