STUDENTS are being penalised for the UK Government’s coronavirus “failures”, the Liberal Democrats have claimed.
Boris Johnson is reported to have been furious over the low uptake rates of the Covid vaccine among young people, and was said to have been considering they have two jags before being allowed to return to lecture theatres.
The UK government has refused to rule out the idea of making full Covid vaccination mandatory for students, with a spokesman saying Downing Street was still considering vaccine certificates.
Asked whether the government was considering banning un-jabbed students from campus, education minister Vicky Ford refused to rule out the idea – saying ministers had to “consider everything”.
The minister for children said: “I can’t comment on things which haven’t been announced, but one does need to look at every practically to make sure we can get students back safely.”
Pressed on whether the government was considering the plan, Ms Ford added: “We’ve always considered everything we can do to make sure [students] are safe in education. And the key thing to get infection down is to make sure people get their vaccination.”
The Liberal Democrats said that young people are bearing the brunt of the pandemic, and students have already lost out on a lot of their education already.
The party’s health spokeswoman Munira Wilson MP said: “It is completely unacceptable that the Government is considering this.
“While it is crucial every adult who can get vaccinated does get the jab, attempting to withhold face-to-face education from students until they do is crossing a line.
“Young people are bearing the brunt of this pandemic, and Government attempts to strong-arm them into getting vaccinated will simply push them away. Along with vaccine passports for nightclubs, it is clear the Tories are trying to antagonise young people into getting the jab.
“This will not wash, and we cannot stand by while ministers try to punish young people for a pandemic Boris Johnson has utterly mishandled.”
Conservative backbenchers have been critical of the plans, with the UK Government’s Department for Education also concerned about the legality of such a measure.
A No10 spokesman said: “We are still looking at the scope for vaccination certifications.”
Asked if there was concern about take-up of the vaccines in younger age groups, the spokesman said: “I think you continue to see more and more young people coming forward to receive the vaccine, both in terms of first doses and now second doses.
“Of course, we want to see more people come forward to receive it.
“We would like to see everybody who is invited to come forward and receive the vaccination to do so.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel