‘No pub passport plan until nation is jabbed’
BORIS Johnson says it may be impractical to have coronavirus health certificates until everyone has been offered the jab – after a backlash from hospitality bosses.
The Prime Minister had suggested the Government was considering plans to allow entry into pubs only if customers could prove their Covid-19 status.
He said this might be based on whether people have developed antibodies through infection, as well as vaccinations and negative tests, adding landlords should be allowed to decide admission.
But Mr Johnson then tried to ease anger from Conservative MPs and businesses who slammed the plans as “unworkable”.
Speaking during a visit to a nursery in Greenford, London, yesterday, he said: “I do think there is going to be a role for certification.
“What we said is we’ll be reporting on the work of the certification group in early April, either on April 5 or April 12.
“There are lots of difficult issues because there are some people who for medical reasons can’t get a vaccination, pregnant women can’t get a vaccination, you’ve got to be careful how you do this.
“You might only be able to implement a thorough-going vaccination passport scheme – even if you wanted such a thing – in the context of when absolutely everybody had been offered a vaccine.”
Jonathan Neame, the chief executive of pub group Shepherd Neame, ruled out making inoculations mandatory for entry into his premises, saying bar staff could be “subject to intimidation”.
Talking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, he added: “This is fraught with difficulty and it is a
fairly poorly thought-out idea at this stage.
“If you’re going to exclude people for what they have not done, it touches on discrimination, civil liberties and data protection issues.” Bosses of Young’s, Greene King and City Pub Group slammed the passport suggestion, calling it “unworkable”, “devastating”, and “chaotic and discriminatory”. Clive Watson, founder of City Pub Group, pointed out that around 90 per cent of his staff are under 40 and would therefore “not work operationally either”.
Meanwhile Kate Nicholls, the chief executive of the UK Hospitality trade body, said the plan is “simply unworkable”.
And the British Beer and Pub Association said that the requirement would not be “appropriate or necessary”.
Mr Johnson insisted “no decisions have been taken at all” ahead of the results of a Government review into coronavirus certificates being made public early next month. It is believed pubs may be allowed to scrap social distancing rules if they check customers’ certificates at the door, allowing them to operate more profitably.
The PM insisted “all sorts of things are being considered”.
Persuasion
But he added it was “a bit premature” to speculate on whether inns could abandon social distancing and mask-wearing requirements by enforcing passports.
Shadow business secretary Ed Miliband said ministers should not leave the use of vaccine passes to the discretion of landlords if they thought it was the right move for public health.
He said: “I don’t think that’s really the thing that is going to persuade people to get the vaccine.
“I think we’ve done brilliantly in this country at rolling out the vaccine and people taking up the vaccine, and the key thing is a campaign of persuasion for people to take up the vaccine.”
Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove has been tasked with leading a review into the possible use of coronavirus certificates as part of easing England’s restrictions.
On Wednesday, Mr Johnson told MPs that the “concept of vaccine certification should not be totally alien to us” when referring to the requirement of doctors to be vaccinated against hepatitis B.
Mark Harper, the chair of the Covid-19 Recovery Group of Tory backbenchers, said: “I agree with the Prime Minister – that is the Prime Minister of February when he said he didn’t think there was a case for expecting people to show papers to go to the pub.”
Scientist Sir Jeremy Farrar said vaccine passports and certification could cross “that line of individual freedoms and public health”.
He added that “public health works when there is trust”.