VACCINE PASSPORT PLANS A DANGEROUS DISTRACTION

Liberty has responded to reports that the Government will introduce vaccine passports as part of its “Plan B” for tackling the spread of COVID this winter. The human rights organisation has repeatedly warned that vaccine passports are not a solution, and said today’s announcement is a distraction.

Sam Grant, Head of Policy and Campaigns at Liberty, said: “It has never been clearer that this Government believes that laws and restrictions are for other people, and that when our rights are stripped away, it is not the powerful who feel the effects.

“We all want to keep each other safe and Liberty has always supported reasonable and proportionate measures to combat COVID. But vaccine passports are not a solution – they mean more coercion and division.

“At a time when trust in this Government has been destroyed, it asks us to put our faith in it to bring in more restrictions and surveillance. Yet again this is being done without due process because this is being brought in without a vote by MPs.

“Vaccine passports are a distraction from the mess that the Government has found itself in, but also from its long-running failure to provide the support needed to protect everyone. Politicians across the UK should be ensuring wide access to vaccines and providing better education to support and empower people to keep one another safe.”