I should make it very clear that I do not believe that vaccine passports offer either the safest or most appropriate way forward when it comes to admittance to nightclubs or other social settings. Equality under the law is an indivisible principle which underpins our way of life – and any attempt to apportion the freedoms which we all (rightly) take for granted according to the receipt of a vaccination sets, I believe, a dangerous precedent. It is one thing to set a requirement for employment working with extremely vulnerable individuals, but it is quite another to place blanket limitations on groups of people which impact upon their lifestyle and private life.
I am happy we have now transitioned into Step 4 of the roadmap and I was delighted to see nightclubs being able to reopen in England. I thank those in Somerset who have played such a vital role in the rapidity of our vaccine rollout. The rollout brings the prospect of a return to normality, the re-opening of the economy and the chance for all of us to regain the liberties which we’ve temporarily relinquished. I certainly don’t think we should see the right to resume our domestic, individual freedoms as contingent on the basis of receiving a vaccination.