Prime Minister Boris Johnson is reportedly offering a time limit on vaccine passports in order to stop a Conservative Party rebellion in the House of Commons.
Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove is overseeing a review of immunity passports and will update parliament on the plans by the end of this month.
A source close to the review told The Telegraph on Wednesday that in order to maintain the support of lockdown sceptics in the event of a parliamentary vote, ministers are considering making the vaccine passport legislation “explicitly temporary” through the use of “sunset clauses”.
This is the second time in the past week that government sources have leaked to the press that Johnson was considering a time limit to dissuade Tories voting against their party — suggesting that vaccine passports are certainly being given serious consideration and that the Johnson administration believes rebels can be won over by promising time limits on the extraordinary measures.
Such a vaccine passport, possibly accessed through a mobile phone app, could show whether a person had been vaccinated, had recovered from the Chinese virus and was naturally immune, or had recently tested negative.
The papers could be used to enter so-called non-essential businesses, like sports arenas and theatres, though the government has left open the possibility that they could be used to access hospitality venues — pubs and restaurants — with a Number 10 spokesman unable to state whether they may be needed to go into clothing retailers.
Some 73 MPs have already said that they will oppose the measures, including 41 Conservative MPs. However, without a larger party rebellion and backing from the Opposition parties, the government could still pass vaccine passport laws.
The Liberal Democrats have already pronounced their resistance to the measures, with party leader Ed Davey saying: “Vaccine passports are actually Covid identity cards by the back door. They take away people’s freedoms.”
Opposition is also growing amongst the Labour Party, the House of Commons’ largest opposition party. A report from earlier in the week claimed that Labour MPs had been told that the party would vote against the proposals — though it is believed the left-wing party could support some other kind of certification related to testing rather than vaccination.
Party leader Keir Starmer is also more openly criticising the idea of vaccine passports, branding them as against “British instinct”, and condemning the government’s planning on the matter as a “complete mess”.
Starmer said on Wednesday: “We do not support the Government’s plans in their current form, it’s as simple as that.”
“In fact the Government’s plans seem to be changing on an almost-daily basis. Only a few weeks ago the Prime Minister was saying he was thinking of vaccine passports to go to the pub – now he says isn’t. One day he’s talking about tests – then it’s certificates. It’s a complete mess,” he said.
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