People who refuse vaccine cannot be expected to be treated the same as vaccinated people - MP says

People who have chosen not the get the covid vaccine should not expect to be treated the same as those who have had the jabs, a Tory MP has said.
Vaccine centre at Grindon Lane in SunderlandVaccine centre at Grindon Lane in Sunderland
Vaccine centre at Grindon Lane in Sunderland

Damian Collins, former chair of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, told Times Radio it would be ‘unreasonable’ for those who had chosen not to get vaccinated to expect “to be treated in the same way” as those who had.

The Conservative MP told Times Radio: “We don’t force anyone to have a vaccine in this country, it is up to their individual choice.

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“But at the same time, it might be unreasonable for someone who has decided not to get vaccinated to expect to be treated in the same way as someone who has been vaccinated twice.”

He added: “I think we need to look venue-by-venue at the practicalities of introducing that but I can see certain venue owners, who are putting on large and major events for which they themselves may be trying to get insurance in order to protect their investment in those events, it may well be this is something those venues actively want to encourage so they’ve got that extra level of certainty.

“I don’t think in that situation the Government should try and stop people doing that – that may be something the venues themselves want.

“I think we have to look at this very seriously, we have to look at what the vaccination rates are like by that time and if the double vaccination rates are high enough, it may not be necessary, but I do think this is something that has to be looked at seriously.”

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The comments come as politicians debate the NHS app being used as a ‘vaccine passport’.

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said using vaccine passports domestically was “unworkable, expensive and divisive”.

Sir Ed Davey said changes to the NHS app to allow it to double up as an electronic vaccine passport was an “abuse of democracy”.

He said: “Frankly, this Government has given everybody many reasons, time and time again not to trust them.

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“I do not trust Boris Johnson, I do not trust his ministers and we will watch them like hawks, and we will come down on them – that’s what we are doing now.

“They are trying to do this in the recess when Parliament isn’t sitting – it is a disgrace.

“It is an abuse of democracy, it is an abuse of power and it threatens taking people’s freedoms away and stigmatising young people, hitting businesses – that is not acceptable and the Liberal Democrats are going to call them out.”