By Tony O’Riley-
Over 50 Tory MPs are insisting on a parliamentary debate on the government’s covid vaccine passports, after the idea was suddenly introduced after the Uk government announced the full easing of restrictions which would see night clubs open their doors after 18 months of being shut.
The government announced the plans in response to concerns about the growing spread of infections, and are getting ready for a revolt against the government’s vaccine passport plan after they were sneaked in without consultation with parliament.
Boris Johnson has announced that certificates proving double vaccinations will be needed to enter nightclubs and potentially other venues from the end of September. Mr. Johnson is hoping the announcement will make a resumption to normal life minimize any potential risk of a major break out.
Ministers find the plans problematic and unconstitutional, without a debate in parliament to validate any legal passing of the plans. All laws are expected to b passed through parliament after a vote by Mps. The British government has been criticized for imposing covid -19 restrictions without first presenting them to parliament for a vote.
Lockdown restrictions in 2020 were originally imposed on the British public without going through parliament, but was eventually passed after a vote. Boris Johnson enjoys a strong majority in parliament.
Wellingborough MP Peter Bone said mandatory vaccine passports would create a ‘two-class society’ by ‘identity papers by the back door’, while South Thanet MP Craig Mackinlay branded them a ‘massive change to the relationship between the state and the individual’ that would be a ‘very dangerous step’.
Lockdown and vaccine critic, Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 Committee of backbench Tories, told Sky News the move would be a ‘massive step and a misguided one’.
He added: ‘The policy would discriminate against the young, against those who have medical or ethical reasons why they can’t be vaccinated and many ethnic minority groups.’
Deputy chairman of the Covid Recovery Group of Tories, Steve Baker, said it was an ‘outrageous proposal’ that likely would not ‘do any good’.
He added: ‘Who are they now trying to coerce? Whose education are they now trying to deny?
NHS App
Covid vaccine passports were effectively introduced after changes to the NHS app
Boris Johnson was said to have been ‘raging’ about the relatively low uptake of Covid jabs in young people, and had suggested the move to drive up the rates.
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has also suggested students will have to be double jabbed if they want to live in halls of residence from September.
Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Alistair Carmichael accused ministers of committing to the passports ‘by stealth’.
‘We now have a new ID card snuck onto our phones without even as much as a whisper from the government,’ he said.
The Lib Dems are among politicians that have called for ministers to scrap the stringent covid vaccines passports for good, or at least allow MPs to debate them in Parliament.
That debate may have to take place before covid passports for clubs can legally be put in place. This does not mean the Uk government will not be able to find a way round any opposition they face-that’s if Boris Johnson’s strong majority in parliament doesn’t blow away all rivals to his covid vaccination passport plans.