Confusion over ‘vaccine passports’ for pubs, after Downing Street refuses to rule them out

Government policy on “vaccine passports” was plunged deeper into confusion today after a minister said they would not be required for pubs - only for Downing Street to insist this has not been ruled out.

Business minister Paul Scully‘s comment came just a day after Boris Johnson stunned Tory MPs by failing to rule out the move for drinkers in crowded bars.

Asked if pubs are among the venues where proof of a jab will be required, the small business minister said: “No. We’re not saying crowded pubs at all.

“We’re not ruling anything out, but we’re not saying crowded pubs. We’re saying nightclubs and also larger ticketed events as well.”

However, just hours later Mr Johnson’s official spokesman told reporters no decision had been made.

The spokesman said that nightclubs were “the area where we have the most evidence” on the use of Covid passports, thanks to the mass event pilot trials carried out over the past few months, as well as experience in countries like the Netherlands, Italy and South Korea.

But asked whether he could rule out a requirement for proof of double vaccination being needed in settings like crowded pubs or refreshment counters at football grounds, the spokesman said: “I‘m not seeking to draw any specific restrictions around settings we’re considering at the moment.

“Nightclubs are simply where we have the most evidence because they are by design settings where individuals who don’t normally mix are in close proximity, it’s late at night there’s alcohol involved. So those are the risk factors.

“We will want to consider the evidence. The prime minster has set out that he is not kwwn for that to happen in puba, certainly, but we are looking at the evidence.”

Mr Scully was speaking the day after another extraordinary government U-turn – just two weeks after vaccine passports were rejected as proof of entry to any venue.

Nightclubs will bar entry from the end of September to unvaccinated customers – in a French-style bid to force the 3 million under-30s who have so far refused to get a jab to do so.

The rule will also apply in “other venues where large crowds gather”, Mr Johnson said and – although he did not name them – he did not rule out football matches or even pubs.

Piling pressure on young people to get jabbed, he warned them: “Some of life’s most important pleasures and opportunities are likely to be increasingly dependent on vaccination.”

On 5 July, a government-ordered review said: “The impacts are judged to be disproportionate to the public health benefit at this stage of the pandemic.”

But ministers have been spooked by the scenes of packed nightclubs – after allowing them to reopen on Monday – and fears they will become Covid ‘super-spreader events’.

Mr Scully acknowledged that some pubs can be as busy as nightclubs – appearing to meet the government’s new test of “closed spaces, crowded places and close-contact settings”.

He added, on Sky News: “We’ve got to define it really carefully. And we will do that in the coming months until we get there.”

Any move to enforce vaccine passports in nightclubs, but not pubs, will enrage the industry – just days after clubbers were finally allowed back through doors.

Both the Night Time Industries Association and the music trade body LIVE have insisted they must not be treated any differently to bars and restaurants”.