There’s white smoke blowing over the House of Commons today as Sajid Javid declares ‘Peace in our Time.’ The Health Secretary – Daladier to Johnson’s Chamberlain – has emerged with an olive branch to the dozens of Tory MPs opposed to Covid passes. In a bid to placate potential rebels like Danny Kruger, Javid and Johnson are offering a compromise: they won’t proceed with mandatory jabs and vaccine passports will always carry the option of showing a lateral flow test (LFT). Many MPs remain unconvinced, with many citing the government’s failure to produce evidence that vaccine passports actually work.
Still, the concession by Johnson shows even he recognises the limits of coercion. Yet Mr S would have more faith in the word of the Prime Minister had he and his ministers not repeatedly broken it before. When assessing the credibility of the PM’s pledges to always allow an LFT and rule out compulsory credibility, it’s worth looking at the similar assurances he and his colleagues gave on the issue of vaccine passports. The then vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi said they were ‘discriminatory’ and unBritish; he said there were ‘no plans’ to introduce them – even as thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money was being spent on digital ‘certificates’ to would allow people to prove their immunity when asked. What safeguards are there to prevent another such occurrence?
Amid all the shenanigans ahead of tonight’s vote – with Boris set to address the 1922 in a last minute appearance to ward off the rebels – Mr S was amused to see Dominic Raab this morning championing reform of the Human Rights Act. The Lord Chancellor told the House that ‘In this country, we have a proud tradition of liberty, which we must cherish and nurture’ adding that ‘a modern Bill of Rights will strengthen our freedoms.’
A rich irony on the day that MPs meet to rubber-stamp Covid passes eh?
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