Dozens of Tories ‘prepared to rebel against jab passports’ as they’re quietly introduced

As many as 50 MPs are threatening to vote against the passports if they go to a vote

More than 50 Tory MPs are gearing up for a revolt against the government’s vaccine passport plan after they were quietly introduced.

Boris Johnson has announced that certificates proving double vaccinations will be needed to enter nightclubs and potentially other venues from the end of September.

But many Conservatives have hit out against the ‘completely unnecessary, bureaucratic and unworkable’ proposals.

As many as 50 MPs are threatening to rebel against the passports if they go to a vote, the Daily Mail reports.

It comes after the government was accused of introducing passports by stealth after the NHS app was updated with ‘domestic’ and ‘travel’ options for people to prove their vaccination status yesterday.

MPs are demanding a debate on the issue as some nightclubs begin using the passes.

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’.

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?

Covid vaccine passports were effectively introduced after changes to the NHS app

‘I believe the government is in terrible danger of splitting the Tory Party irretrievably – after all we have been through with Brexit.’

More than 40 Tories have signed a declaration expressing their opposition to the idea with campaign group Big Brother Watch.

One unnamed senior Conservative told the Mail there is ‘almost universal objection’ in the party to the plans.

Boris Johnson announced proof of Covid vaccination will be required for entry to nightclubs and other venues where large crowds gather in an address to the nation on Freedom Day, when all restrictions where lifted.

It was said that the PM was ‘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,

It is hoped every adult in England will have been offered two doses by then.

But Covid vaccine passports have effectively been introduced already after a change to the app’s features yesterday.

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 called for ministers to scrap the passes for good or at least allow MPs to debate them in Parliament.

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