Former brains boss blasts vaccine passports proposal

THE former boss of pub chain Brains has described a plan for vaccine passports for pubs as “absolute stinker of an idea”.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson suggested landlords in England may require proof of immunity before admission to pubs and bars. The Welsh Government would have to make a separate decision for pubs in Wales.

The possibility of allowing the use of so-called vaccine passports to permit entry into pubs and other venues was outlined as part of Mr Johnson’s road map for lockdown easing, a Government minister has suggested.

But the idea has been criticised by pub bosses who have pointed out that pubs would not be able to open because the majority of people who work in them are young and won’t have been vaccinated.

SA Brain former chief executive Alistair Darby, who stepped down from the company last month after the completion of a deal that sees Marston’s take over the running of its pubs, had blasted the idea.

“What has worried me about this pandemic is the way it has created a have and have not situation,” he told BBC Radio Wales.

“If you were a young person who is at very low risk of getting coronavirus and you want to visit a pub, you’re way back in the queue for the vaccination line up yet you could be told on pub reopening that you can’t come in because you don’t have a vaccine passport.

“Why are we doing this? It is really going to polarise our society. It is not fair to say that because you are older, or more vulnerable, I get a vaccination so I can go to a pub.

“Then you will say to someone who is 21 and may want to meet friends in a pub that they can’t come in because they don’t have a vaccination passport. That is wrong. It is very divisive. It puts a very, very unfair burden on landlords.

“Most of the time, the people having to make the decision who comes in or stays out of the pub are bar staff, waiters and waitresses, many of whom are young. It is really unhelpful and a division we don’t need. We need to be in this together.”

■■Publicans blast pub passport plan – page 13