Boris Johnson faces battle to get vaccine passports through parliament

Boris Johnson was today facing a growing wave of opposition to the introduction of vaccine passports, as it emerged that Downing Street is considering making them mandatory for clothes shoppers.

The idea provoked horror among retailers, with one trade body saying that Covid-status certification was neither “appropriate or useful” on the High Street.

With 40 or more Tory MPs threatening rebellion on a plan which one former minister said would usher in a “miserable dystopia of Checkpoint Britain”, the prime minister’s hopes of getting passports through parliament were hanging on a knife-edge.

Labour gave its strongest signal yet that it will oppose the current plans if they are put to a vote. Liberal Democrats have declared they will oppose the measure, but the SNP is yet to say how or if it will vote when the issue comes to the Commons. Scotland’s SNP first minister Nicola Sturgeon said she was “open-minded” on the issue, and will look “very carefully” at whether certification could help society return to normal after the pandemic.

Controversy over vaccine passports burst into the open after an official government paper confirmed on Monday that they are “likely to be come a feature of our lives” and made clear that a national scheme is being drawn up for their possible use to access nightclubs, theatres, festivals and sporting events, as well as international travel after the end of England’s lockdown on 21 June.

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The document indicated that passports might be optional for pubs and restaurants, and ruled out asking people to prove their Covid status to use public transport or enter “essential” retail premises.

But it did not spell out exactly which shops would be exempt.

And Mr Johnson’s official spokesman today declined to rule out clothes shops being required to ask customers to show a smartphone app proving that they have either been vaccinated, recently tested positive or acquired immunity to coronavirus through an infection within the previous six months.

Steve Baker, the deputy chair of the Covid Recovery Group of lockdown-sceptic Tory backbenchers, blasted Covid status certificates as “discriminatory”, “un-British” and “entirely incompatible with freedom”.

“After the toll families and friends have paid all over the country in the face of Covid, and after enduring the devastating cycle of lockdowns and restrictions, the last thing we should do is allow Covid to have the victory of changing our country forever into the miserable dystopia of Checkpoint Britain,” he said.

And former Cabinet minister David Davis said it was “plain as a pikestaff” that once an ID card of this kind was introduced, ministers would seek to extend it to cover future outbreaks of diseases like flu, warning: “Once you’ve once you’ve established the software, it won’t stop there.”

The British Retail Consortium’s chief executive Helen Dickinson said shops were clear that Covid status certification “would not be appropriate or useful in a retail setting”.

“High streets and other shopping destinations rely on impulse and ad hoc purchases from customers who visit,” she said. “This would be badly affected by the additional barriers to trade.

“Instead, we believe that continuing to follow the existing strict safety protocols, including regular cleaning, face-coverings and regular hand washing, is the best course of action to protect staff and customers in stores.”

And the chief executive of UK Hospitality, Kate Nicholls, said an optional scheme would leave pubs and restaurants with a “Hobson’s choice” between two bad alternatives.

“They either have to impose vaccine certificates on their premises, which comes with additional costs and administrative burdens,” said Ms Nicholls. “Or they have social distancing restrictions for longer, which means that they don’t make a profit and can’t break even.

“Either way they are faced with significant costs and administrative challenges to open after 21 June.”

Labour’s shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said: “I’m not going to support a policy that… if someone wants to go into Next or H&M, they have to produce a vaccination certificate on their phone, on an app. I think that’s discriminatory.”

While it “makes sense” to ask people to take a test before going to events such as a football match, “we don’t think asking you to produce a vaccination passport, which is this digital ID card, is fair”, he said.

And a senior Labour source said that “on the basis of what we’ve seen and discussed with ministers, we oppose the government’s plans”. The plans “appear poorly thought-through, will put added burdens on business and run the risk of becoming another expensive Whitehall project that gets outsourced to friends of Tory ministers”, the source said.

A survey of 700 nightclub operators and other late-night entertainment venues found an overwhelming 69 per cent believe a passport scheme would damage their businesses, already battered by more than a year of closed doors.

The chief executive of the Night Time Industries Association, Michael Kill, said there were “deep concerns” in the sector that potential customers will be put off going out by  intrusive checks.

“If retail, supermarkets, public transport, hotels, pubs and restaurants are excluded from the use of Covid status certification, with many of these businesses displaying similar contact and proximity environments, why would nightclubs and other venues be expected to ask customers to present Covid status certification as a prerequisite or requirement of entry?” asked Mr Kill.

Trials of vaccine passports and other Covid security measures are to be carried out at clubs, cinemas and sports events over the coming weeks, culminating in a bid to allow  20,000 football fans into Wembley for the FA Cup Final on 15 May.

But no final decision on whether to go ahead is expected before these pilots are complete, with the crucial vote likely to come as late as June. Former Lib Dem leader Tim Farron wrote to Leader of the Commons Jacob Rees-Mogg to demand an early vote next week, before the “deeply divisive, illiberal and completely unnecessary” plans are developed further.

Speaking on a visit to a vaccine factory in Macclesfield, Mr Johnson said his focus was on inoculating the population, but added that vaccine passports were “going to be a fact of life, probably” for international travel and the government was looking at “the role of a number of signals that you can give that you are not contagious”.

The PM’s press secretary Allegra Stratton said there was “quite a long way to go” before the government would know what plans - if any - it will present to parliament.

Ms Stratton said Mr Johnson would reach out for “dialogue” with concerned Tory MPs, but added: “There isn’t yet a conversation to be had with backbenchers, because we haven’t yet got the proposals.”