Vaccine passports are “not particularly intrusive”, Dominic Raab has claimed as the Government braces for a backbench revolt on Plan B measures later today.
Around 80 Conservative MPs are expected to vote against the Covid Pass scheme, which requires either two doses of a vaccination or a recent negative lateral flow test for large events. There will also be votes on the expanded mask mandates and the return of working from home.
“Even if you haven't had the double jab or, in due course, the booster, you can still rely on the lateral flow test, which is why I think some of these concerns about this are overstated,” Mr Raab told Sky News.
“I don’t think that is a particularly intrusive thing to do. The business of Government is to do what’s right for the country and the reality is the Government must do what it sensibly believes is right in the interests of the country.”
Speaking to Times Radio, he added: “Plan B is a contingency plan, a temporary plan, it’s not as intrusive as some are suggesting. I don't think this is a big step or a slippery slope, but we should have a proper debate."
On BBC Breakfast, the Justice Secretary revised his figure for the number of patients in hospital with omicron down from 250 to nine after prior remarks on Sky News. Officials told Sky News that the current number of hospital patients with omicron is in fact ten.
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Freedom of speech is to be enshrined in a new British bill of rights to protect against wokery, political correctness and the advance of European-style privacy laws, writes Charles Hymas.
Dominic Raab, the Justice Secretary, wants the “quintessentially British” human right of freedom of expression to be given “extra weight”, because of his concerns that it is being whittled away by privacy concerns and the rise of “cancel culture”.
His proposed new Bill, to be foreshadowed in a consultation paper on Tuesday, will reinforce the primacy of Parliament to protect free speech against the “back door” introduction of privacy laws through court cases, such as the Duchess of Sussex’s legal victory over the Mail on Sunday.
It also follows public figures being barred from speaking at universities and other institutions because of their outspoken views. In the most recent case, Rod Liddle, the columnist, was “cancelled” by students when he started speaking at Durham University.
Read the full report plus a piece by Suella Braverman, the Attorney General, here
Schools are being told to revert to remote lessons on the grounds of public health advice, a union leader has said.
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), confirmed one primary school and one secondary school had closed in Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk.
He told the BBC's Radio 4 Today programme: "I think it's just important to say that this decision was not at the whim of a head teacher.
"That wasn't someone saying 'Actually, we're going to close the school because Christmas can come early'.
"That was on public health advice and I think what we're getting through all of this is the national narrative, quite rightly, that we want to do everything we can to keep young people in school."
Gareth Davies has the full story amid 'very severe low attendance' at some schools
Amid this fresh uncertainty, one thing is clear: we cannot go on living like this, writes Sherelle Jacobs.
As a majority-vaccinated country, we cannot go on suffering the permanent threat of lockdown restrictions, for fear the health service could be overwhelmed. We cannot go on being plunged into panic by pessimistic modelling that has consistently been proved wrong in the past.
We cannot go on pursuing Covid Plan Bs, Cs and Ds without a sensible cost-benefit analysis that weighs the harms and uncertainties of the virus against those of the restrictions. We cannot go on with a superficially populist Tory Government that will entertain the drastic action of lockdowns but not radical NHS reform.
In fact, it may be that we are entering the end game with the virus. Every time it alters itself to evade our immunity, it risks mutating in a way that makes it less deadly. Some immunologists suggest that this could turn out to be the case with omicron.
Read more from Sherelle here
The NHS was scrambling to deliver government pledges on booster jabs as millions of people answered calls to get the vaccines.
More than 4.4 million visits were made to the NHS website yesterday, with queues of up to five hours at walk-in centres after Boris Johnson warned of a “tidal wave” of omicron facing the UK.
On Sunday night, the Prime Minister urged adults to “get boosted now”, promising that all over-18s could get their jabs by the end of the year.
Within moments of his broadcast, the NHS booking site crashed for many users as it was repeatedly overwhelmed by demand from millions of people.
Long queues were seen outside vaccination sites yesterday as Sajid Javid, the Health Secretary, said the Government would “throw everything at” the Covid booster programme to tackle the omicron variant.
Laura Donnelly, Harry Yorke and Bill Gardner have this report
There was confusion after Boris Johnson's address on Sunday when the Prime Minister said: "Everyone eligible aged 18 and over in England will have the chance to get their booster before the new year."
However, the language around third vaccine doses has since shifted to a target of all adults being offered their booster by the end of the year. Sajid Javid, the Health Secretary, said in the Commons yesterday that there was "of course" a "difference" between people being called up for their jabs and actually receiving them.
Dominic Raab added on Sky News this morning: "We’re doing everything to get as many people as we possibly can jabbed... We want to get as close to that as possible. The target is to get everyone over-18 offered a booster."
Pressed on the plans on Times Radio, Mr Raab said the target was "demanding... but we should strive to hit it".
"With a dangerous new variant that transmits very quickly, we want to get everyone that we can protected, as we decipher more clearly what the impacts of omicron will be."
The Government should be preparing to give Britons fourth, fifth and sixth Covid vaccinations to prepare for future waves of the virus, a senior Conservative has said.
Tobias Ellwood, the chairman of the defence select committee, indicated he will vote against Covid certification measures today, and expressed his concern that the booster rollout "will place further strain on our already exhausted NHS infrastructure".
"I think we should be looking in years, not in months," he told the Today programme. "We are going to need a fourth, a fifth, a sixth jab in readiness for further waves. We created a Brexit department, we created a climate change department.
"Why not create a new department with a Secretary of State with a new bespoke infrastructure, with a standalone national vaccination workforce? That's what I'd like to see."
On vaccine passports, Mr Ellwood said: "You can go into a large venue with a recent negative lateral flow test, again that makes sense. But you can also show up if you had proof of having two jabs, which may have been completed at least six months ago. So even with this new mutation you could still be carrying Covid."
Dominic Raab sought to reassure Britons that they can expect a far more normal Christmas than last year.
Asked by broadcasters yesterday whether any new curbs would be introduced prior to the festive period, Boris Johnson repeatedly refused to rule out further restrictions between now and December 25.
Mr Raab told Times Radio: "We’ve got Plan B, that’s what we think is required over the Christmas period as well as the big focus on getting the boosters and offering the boosters to everyone over-18. That’s how we provide the surest protection.
"I think people can look forward to spending Christmas with loved ones. Even now the rate of vaccination is so much higher, that coupled with the booster campaign can provide that reassurance... We’ll go into this Christmas able to spend it with loved ones in a way that was impossible last year."
“We’ve got no plans, the plan is for Plan B. Who knows whether there’ll be another variant along the line. But we’re learning more about the virus every day, we’ve got Plan B, we think it’s the right one.”
So-called vaccine passport measures are not "particularly intrusive" and the rebellion among Conservative MPs is likely to be smaller than reported, the Deputy Prime Minister has claimed.
Dominic Raab admitted vaccine passports are “a difficult thing to do" but insisted the measure, which requires either two doses of a Covid vaccine or a recent negative lateral flow tests for entry to large events, was "necessary".
"I do understand the concerns people have," he told Sky News. "I think people want to see us grappling with the omicron variant in a sensible, targeted, proportionate way. We want to provide that reassurance and this is a proportionate way of doing so.
"Either you can demonstrate you’ve been double jabbed or that you’ve had a lateral flow tests. I don’t think that is a particularly intrusive thing to do.”
On the prospect of 80 Tory MPs not supporting the Government on Covid passes in the Commons today, Mr Raab said: "I’ll be very surprised if the number is as high as you describe. The business of Government is to do what’s right for the country."
Vaccine passports are “not particularly intrusive”, Dominic Raab has claimed as the Government braces for a backbench revolt on Plan B measures later today.
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