Vaccine passports could be introduced for pubs as Sajid Javid refuses to rule them out

The Health Secretary said he doesn’t want drinkers to have to show they’re double-jabbed, ‘unless … something happens that means that we have to take further measures’

Pubs could be forced to demand Covid vaccine passports from their punters after the Health Secretary refused to rule out the move.

Sajid Javid said he did not want drinkers to have to show their double-jabbed status on the door – “unless … something happens that means that we have to take further measures”.

His comments yesterday, which were overshadowed by the Cabinet reshuffle, come after Boris Johnson and No10 repeatedly refused to rule out bringing in the measure for pubs.

Plans to force all nightclubs to ask for vaccine passports from the end of this month were shelved following a Tory backlash.

But they are a central plank in Boris Johnson’s Plan B for winter.

If cases soar, vaccine passports could be forced on any “indoor, crowded setting with 500 or more attendees” at just a week’s notice.

Earlier this week, Boris Johnson insisted he had “never been in favour of vaccine passports for pubs” but they could have been a “game changer” last year.

Mr Javid also left the door open to requiring punters to show proof of a coronavirus jabs before they are served a pint.

Asked about the possibility, he told LBC Radio: “No, I don’t believe we are, unless – and that’s why I want to caveat that, I want to be straight with your listeners as I always am – if something happens that means that we have to take further measures, then we will.

“And that may well include vaccine passports as a reserve measure and let me explain, that you might think, well what could happen, what could really go wrong?”

The Mirror understands officials are concerned about crowded city centre pubs, which can have late opening, large crowds and dance floors a lot like nightclubs.

Under Boris Johnson’s Plan A for winter, venues are encouraged to ask punters for a ‘Covid pass’ showing their vaccination status.

Under the government’s Plan B, these could be made a mandatory condition of entry, with venues forced to ask for them by law.

They would apply to all nightclubs, indoor crowded settings of 500 or more attendees, outdoor crowded settings of 4,000 or more people and any setting of 10,000 people or more.

Mr Javid added: “We work with our friends across the world. We look out for new variants.

“There are new variants all the time, by the way, but most of them are nothing to worry at all, but there may be a new variant that is much more infectious and, God forbid, it might even be a vaccine escape variant or have some of its properties.

“In that situation, we have to be ready to take further action and we set that out yesterday, the so-called Plan B and I think it’s the act of a responsible government to recognise that when it comes to something like COVID, it’s not your friend, it’s clearly not always under your control.

“You can fight it, but you have to be ready because if COVID changes with a new variant for example, it’s not going to wait for the government.”

It comes after the Government quietly ended its shielding programme while the Cabinet reshuffle was taking place.

An update to its webpage on guidance for protecting people who are clinically extremely vulnerable to the virus. said: “Given the successful rollout of the Covid-19 vaccine programme, the shielding programme has now ended.”

James Taylor, of disability equality charity Scope, said: “The Government has said that shielding will not be reintroduced, but this leaves those who were formerly on the clinically extremely vulnerable list anxious and questioning whether they will be safe and supported.

“The Government’s plan B identifies working from home as one possible option, but what about disabled people who can’t work from home? Under shielding, people were afforded some rights, but those have now gone. Throughout the pandemic disabled people have felt routinely forgotten by the Government.”