COVID PASSPORT TRIALS TO BEGIN

EXCLUSIVE: Boris set to unveil test scheme for venues on Monday... and end of lockdown may depend on them

TRIALS of vaccine passports could begin as soon as next month, the Mail can reveal.

Theatres and stadiums are being lined up to pilot the controversial scheme under plans discussed by ministers.

The passports could also be used eventually in pubs, restaurants, nightclubs and cinemas.

Pilot schemes will begin after work is completed on an updated version of the NHS Covid app which will let users prove they have been vaccinated.

The plan is a sign Boris Johnson will give vaccine passports the go-ahead on Monday, when he is due to report the interim results of a study led by Michael Gove.

But their introduction is certain to trigger a huge political row. Last night 72 MPs – including libertarian Tories and senior Labour figures – issued a joint statement branding vaccine passports ‘ divisive and discriminatory’ and vowing to oppose them. This threatens a major headache for the Prime Minister if he needs legislation to bring the scheme in.

The Mail can also reveal that Mr Johnson’s ‘roadmap’ for lifting almost all restrictions by June 21 could now be dependent on a functioning vaccine passport programme.

One Whitehall source last night admitted it is vital if the Government is to hit its target of ending all social distancing this summer.

Yesterday, the Prime Minister dropped a further hint he has come round to the idea, saying vaccine passports could help to provide

‘maximum confidence to businesses and customers’. He stressed any scheme would also allow people to show a negative test result or proof they already have Covid antibodies.

Speaking on a visit to Middlesbrough, the PM said vaccine passports now looked inevitable for foreign travel. But he suggested they would also have a ‘useful’ role to play domestically. It came as:

■ Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty said Covid would eventually have to be managed in a similar way to serious seasonal viruses such as flu;

■ Cases continued to fall after pupils returned to school, in a boost for plans to press ahead with easing lockdown;

■ Another 51 deaths and 4,479 cases were reported;

■ An incredible 93 per cent of over-50s have now been vaccinated;

■ Ministers appeared set to introduce a ‘traffic light’ system to open up flights to countries with low Covid rates;

■ Police chiefs warned the public not to bend the rules this Easter weekend;

■ Emmanuel Macron was accused of acting like an arrogant king over France’s new national lockdown.

The vaccine passports row exploded last month when ministers confirmed they were considering the idea – after a string of denials.

Mr Johnson then suggested to MPs that they could eventually be needed to visit the pub. A working group led by Mr Gove has been leading a review, with the PM due to give an update on Monday.

The roadmap out of lockdown paves the way for pilot schemes on allowing crowds to attend ‘large events’ from April 12. But Whitehall sources say these schemes will also now be used to test the emerging technology needed for vaccine passports. Ministers hope an updated version of the NHS app will allow users to display their vaccine status on their phones. They have already decided people should be able to demonstrate their risk status in other ways, such as providing a negative test result.

This is deigned to get around concerns the scheme could ‘discriminate’ against those not able or willing to have a jab.

A Whitehall source said of the vaccine passports idea: ‘It is part of the trade-off for getting rid of social distancing. The hope is that people will be willing to tolerate it in order to get back to doing the things they love.’

Mr Johnson said: ‘ There’s definitely going to be a world in which international travel will use vaccine passports. I think when it comes to trying to make sure that we give maximum confidence to businesses and customers in the UK, there are three things – there’s immunity, whether you have had it before so you have natural antibodies, whether you have been vaccinated, and of course whether you have had a test.

‘Those three things working together will be useful for us as we go forward.’

But there is growing cross-party concern about the idea of requiring people to produce evidence of their health status to carry out everyday activities such as going to the pub or even the office.

Former minister Steve Baker, deputy chairman of the 70-strong Covid Recovery Group, said this would be ‘unthinkable’. Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey described the scheme this week as ‘unworkable and illiberal’.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said he would study any Government proposals but warned his party could oppose the ‘un-British’ plan.

A SCANNER on a bar door flashes. A person places their smartphone on the device. Moments later, their medical records are approved and they’re ushered inside.

No, not a scene from a futuristic movie set in a data-controlled dystopia. This is how Britons could soon gain access to pubs, restaurants, theatres and sports arenas.

Despite imposing the harshest curbs on our freedoms for a year, the Government plans to extend its tentacles further into our everyday lives. As we reveal today, it will soon begin trialling vaccine passports.

Under this intrusive scheme, customers could be denied entry to a venue if they fail to produce proof of a jab, a recent negative test or Covid antibodies.

Unveiling his roadmap, Boris Johnson promised the country would be set free on June 21. Now, we discover there’s a catch: These secret plans will force us to accept sinister new controls in exchange for the return of our hard-won liberties.

Polling shows Britons will tolerate them. But do they realise where it will end? Will public transport become conditional on vaccination too? What about a pass to enter a hospital or doctors’ surgery?

Won’t it discriminate against those who refuse the vaccine on medical or ethical grounds? Won’t it be grotesquely unfair on the young, who are last in the jabs queue?

Such authoritarian tactics might have been warranted when the disease was rampant. But as we reap the rewards of the vaccination programme, surely immunity passports will soon be redundant.

Betraying his libertarian instincts, the PM thinks this is the best way to stifle the disease while keeping the economy afloat.

More than two centuries ago, Benjamin Franklin, a US founding father, said: ‘Those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither.’ His statement holds true today.