A leading member of a group of anti-lockdown Tory MPs has warned that the UK is “effectively moving to compulsory vaccination”, after Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that a vaccine passport will be the condition of entry for large venues like nightclubs.
On Monday, the day touted as ‘Freedom Day’, Prime Minister Johnson announced: “By the end of September, when all over-18s will have had their chance to be doubled-jabbed, we’re planning to make full vaccination the condition for entry to nightclubs and other venues where large crowds gather. Proof of a negative test will no longer be enough.”
Faced with the prospect of Britain going down the route of introducing its first domestic vaccine passports, Mark Harper MP, the chairman of the Conservative lockdown-sceptic Covid Recovery Group (CRG), said: “I have to say I don’t welcome the minister’s statement, particularly vaccine passports for crowded venues, which is effectively moving to compulsory vaccination.”
Mr Harper also suggested in comments reported by The Guardian that the government could fail to win support when the measures are voted on in parliament, saying: “I do however look forward to the debate and the vote in parliament when he will bring forward the evidence because I don’t think that is supported by the pilots that have taken place.”
The Liberal Democrats, who have been consistent in their opposition to vaccine passports, condemned the measures, with the party’s Home Affairs Spokesman Alistair Carmichael saying: “Vaccine passports are Covid ID cards: unworkable, expensive and divisive.”- READ MORE
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