British shoppers might be forced to show Covid vaccine passports to go clothes shopping, it was revealed today.
Downing Street refused to rule out allowing non-essential shops to demand proof of jab status today as it faced an ever-escalating backlash against the plans.
Sir Keir Starmer and Labour gave their clearest indication yet that will oppose the rollout of the documents and vote alongside furious Tory backbenchers.
Some 40 Conservative MPs have already made clear they are against ‘Covid Status Certification’, warning that introducing the checks in everyday life would create a ‘two tier’ nation.
Ministers have already ruled out requiring passports for essential shopping like for food and medicines, and said any changed would not happen before June.
But asked today if consumers may need them for High Street clothes shops like H&M and Next in future, the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman said: ‘Well, as has been said, we are looking at how Covid status certification could have an important role to play domestically as well as internationally.
‘We will come forward with more detail on them or how they may work in due course. I obviously don’t have that detail for you now but I would point you back to what the Prime Minister said yesterday about the fact that we will not require them as businesses open from next Monday as part of stage two.’
It came as former Tory minister Steve Baker said vaccine passports would be ‘entirely un-British’.
‘Spending vast sums of taxpayers’ money and people’s time testing for a disease we have vaccinated against, and encouraging businesses to discriminate against pregnant women, those with health conditions and allergies, people from ethnic minorities, the disabled and the poor, is not the sort of Britain we should allow the pandemic to turn us into’, he said.
‘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.’
Former Tory minister Steve Baker said vaccine passports would be ‘entirely un-British’.
Boris Johnson (pictured today) is facing a growing Tory revolt over domestic vaccine passports and if Labour opposes the documents he could struggle to win a vote on the issue in the House of Commons
A senior Labour source told The Guardian that Sir Keir and other senior Labour figures ‘are all minded to vote against’ domestic vaccine passports
The initial findings of a Government review on how the passports could be used left the door open to the documents being required for access to pubs and restaurants.
A senior Labour source told The Guardian that Sir Keir and other prominent Labour figures ‘are all minded to vote against’ the documents amid fears over how the scheme could work and its cost.
Meanwhile, shadow health secretary Jon Ashworth appeared to harden the party’s stance further this morning as he said the passports would be ‘discriminatory’.
Tory MPs have demanded Mr Johnson put any passport plan to a vote in the House of Commons but the Prime Minister sidestepped the request at a Downing Street press conference last night.
Labour’s reported stance on the subject means that any vote could be very tight, with Mr Johnson’s fate likely to be determined by how big of a Tory revolt he suffers.
The initial findings of the review on the certification scheme said the documents could have an ‘important role to play both domestically and internationally, as a temporary measure’.
The Government ruled out using the documents to determine access to public transport or essential shops.
But the findings said ‘it is possible that COVID-status certification could also play a role in reducing social distancing requirements in other settings which people tend to visit more frequently, for example in hospitality settings’.
Tory MPs back the use of the documents for international travel but many have significant privacy and civil liberties concerns about using them domestically.
Sir Keir made clear his concerns over the potential use of the documents in day-to-day life in an interview with The Telegraph last week.
He said: ‘My instinct is that, as the vaccine is rolled out, as the number of hospital admissions and deaths go down, there will be a British sense that we don’t actually want to go down this road.’
Mr Ashworth went further this morning when he was asked during an interview on BBC Breakfast whether he intended to vote against domestic vaccine passports.
He said: ‘Well, the problem is the Government actually hasn’t produced the piece of legislation which highlights the details of how this is going to work.
‘Last night when Boris Johnson was asked he couldn’t explain his own policy.
‘So at the moment we are unconvinced but it is up to ministers to convince the country that they have a plan in place and what they are going to do.
‘When we see the details of their legislation we will study it carefully.’
Pushed again on whether he would vote against the plans, he replied: ‘I am not going to support a policy that for here in my Leicester constituency if somebody wants to go into Next or H&M they have to produce a vaccination certificate on their phone on an app. I think that is discriminatory.’
Meanwhile, a Labour source told Politico: ‘On the basis of what we’ve seen and discussed with ministers, we oppose the Government’s plans for domestic vaccine passports.
‘They 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.’
David Davis, the Conservative former Cabinet minister who has previously warned domestic vaccine passports would be ‘illegal’, today claimed Mr Johnson would lose a vote on the issue if Sir Keir does oppose the plans.
He told TalkRadio: ‘This all hangs, ironically, on Keir Starmer because if he sticks by his guns and says this is un-British and implying therefore he would vote against it then the Government has got a problem because there are at least 40 MPs who will vote against it on the Tory side which means he [Mr Johnson] has lost his majority. But that all hangs on the Labour Party.’
Vaccine Minister Nadhim Zahawi insisted that the vaccine passports issue is a work in progress.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘I think it is important to unpack the certificate question a little bit.
‘As the Prime Minister explained yesterday, you are not going to be required to have a certificate if you go into the pub garden on Monday or if you inside the pub in May.
‘But I think it is only right and responsible to look at all options available to us to be able to reopen the economy in as safe a way as possible.’
Former Tory chief whip Mark Harper (left) – who now chairs the 70-strong Covid Recovery Group of Tory MPs – warned the scheme would create a ‘two-tier Britain’ and said it was vital that MPs had the final say.
Mr Johnson put himself on a potential collision course with Tory rebels last night after he hinted that he could try to get the passport scheme into law without a vote in the Commons.
He said: ‘First we need to work out what exactly the proposal might be, but certainly if there is something to put to Parliament I am certain we will do that.’
But former Tory chief whip Mark Harper – who now chairs the 70-strong Covid Recovery Group of Conservative MPs – warned the scheme would create a ‘two-tier Britain’ and said it was vital that the Commons has the final say.
He said: ‘Trying to introduce these domestic vaccine passports by the back door by linking them to removing social distancing rules just won’t be acceptable.
‘It is crucial MPs are allowed a vote on this.
‘Whether the state legislates for it, recommends it or simply allows it, Covid Status Certification will lead to a two-tier Britain and these issues need debating thoroughly and carefully before we allow them to affect the lives of our constituents.’
Former minister Steve Baker described the plans as ‘authoritarian and illogical’.
Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 Committee of backbench Tory MPs, had earlier branded the proposals ‘intrusive, costly and unnecessary’.