DOZENS of MPs and peers have signed a pledge opposing the introduction of vaccine passports.
The group of more than 70 politicians have joined privacy and human rights campaign groups in voicing their concerns about any form of immunity certificate showing protection against coronavirus, arguing they are “divisive and discriminatory”.
It comes after Labour leader Keir Starmer yesterday said that vaccine passports would be “un-British” and against the “British instinct”, however the Prime Minister indicated there would "definitely" be a role for them after the pandemic.
READ MORE: Covid Scotland: Vaccine passports explained
Signatories of the pledge include Scottish Liberal Democrat MPs Wendy Chamberlain, Christine Jardine and Alistair Carmichael, former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, former director of Liberty Baroness Shami Chakrabarti, and over 40 MPs from the Conservative Covid Recovery Group.
They have been supported by campaign groups Big Brother Watch, the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI), Liberty and Privacy International.
The pledge states: “We oppose the divisive and discriminatory use of COVID status certification to deny individuals access to general services, businesses or jobs.”
Baroness Chakrabarti said: “International travel is a luxury but participating in your own community is a fundamental right, so internal Covid passports are an authoritarian step too far.
“We don’t defeat the virus with discrimination and oppression but with education, vaccination and mutual support.”
Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Ed Davey MP said: “As we start to get this virus properly under control we should start getting our freedoms back, vaccine passports - essentially Covid ID cards - take us in the other direction.
“Liberal Democrats have always been the party for civil liberties, we were against ID cards when Blair tried to introduce them and we are against them now.
“Now I hope we can start to turn the tide on the creeping authoritarianism we are seeing from Number 10 across a broad range of issues.”
Conservative MP Sir Graham Brady MP said: “Covid-Status Certification would be divisive and discriminatory. With high levels of vaccination protecting the vulnerable and making transmission less likely, we should aim to return to normal life, not to put permanent restrictions in place.”
Speaking during a visit to Middlesbrough yesterday, Boris Johnson said there would "definitely" be a role for such certificates, adding: "There’s definitely going to be a world in which international travel will use vaccine passports.
"You can see already that other countries, the aviation industry, are interested in this and there’s a logic to that."
The full list of signatories to the pledge are as follows:
Labour
Diane Abbot MP
Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP
Tahir Ali MP
Rebecca Long Bailey MP
Clive Lewis MP
Beth Winter MP
Rachel Hopkins MP
Apsana Begum MP
Richard Burgon MP
Ian Byrne MP
Dawn Butler MP
Jeremy Corbyn MP
Mary Kelly Foy MP
Ian Lavery MP
Ian Mearns MP
John McDonnell MP
Grahame Morris MP
Kate Osborne MP
Zarah Sultana MP
Claudia Webbe MP
Mick Whitley MP
Nadia Whittome MP
Baroness Chakrabarti
Baroness Bryan of Partick
Lord Woodley
Lord Sikka
Lord Hendy
Liberal Democrats
Ed Davey MP
Layla Moran MP
Munira Wilson MP
Alistair Carmichael MP
Daisy Cooper MP
Wendy Chamberlain MP
Sarah Olney MP
Christine Jardine MP
Jamie Stone MP
Tim Farron MP
Lord Scriven
Lord Strasburger
Lord Tyler
Lord Clement-Jones
Conservatives
Mark Harper MP
Steve Baker MP
Sir Iain Duncan Smith MP
Harriett Baldwin MP
Esther McVey MP
Adam Afriyie MP
Bob Blackman MP
Sir Graham Brady MP
Nus Ghani MP
Andrew Mitchell MP
Peter Bone MP
Ben Bradley MP
Andrew Bridgen MP
Paul Bristow MP
Philip Davies MP
Richard Drax MP
Jonathan Djanogly MP
Chris Green MP
Philip Hollobone MP
Adam Holloway MP
David Jones MP
Simon Jupp MP
Andrew Lewer MBE MP
Julian Lewis MP
Karl McCartney MP
Craig Mackinlay MP
Anthony Mangnall MP
Stephen McPartland MP
Anne Marie Morris MP
Sir John Redwood MP
Andrew Rosindell MP
Greg Smith MP
Henry Smith MP
Julian Sturdy MP
Sir Desmond Swayne MP
Sir Robert Syms MP
Craig Tracey MP
Jamie Wallis MP
David Warburton MP
William Wragg MP
Sir Charles Walker MP
NGOs/Business
Big Brother Watch
Liberty
Migrants Organise
Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants
medConfidential
Privacy International
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