Labour calls for vaccine passports as part of Plan B restrictions in winter
Labour has today called for the government to bring back Covid restrictions this winter, after a pair of rapid U-turns on the issue.
Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves said Boris Johnson should advise people to work from home, while also making face masks and vaccine passports mandatory as a part of the government’s Plan B Covid restrictions.
It comes as the UK Health Security Agency is now asking local councils whether they support the immediate implementation of new restrictions, suggesting the government is looking very closely at making the move.
There were almost 45,000 Covid-19 cases in the UK yesterday, with the government warning the daily figure could hit 100,000 throughout winter in what could put serious pressure on the NHS.
Shadow health secretary Jon Ashworth last week called for Plan B to be brought in to avoid the need for harsher restrictions later on, before a Labour spokesperson just hours later clarified that this was not the party’s position.
Reeves then today said “we think the government should” bring in new Covid restrictions in another U-turn.
“The government’s dither and delay risks storing up problems for the future…I think we should introduce those things the scientists say,” she told the BBC.
“Plan B and those measures like mask wearing, which we should be doing…if we don’t do these things the risk is the virus gets out of control and we may have to introduce more stringent measures which nobody wants.”
The Observer reports the UK Health and Security Agency, the successor to Public Health England, is collecting information for the Cabinet Office on whether councils support new restrictions.
Professor Adam Finn, a member of the Joint Committee of Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), told Sky News that the government must not be complacent about the “worsening” situation.
The NHS Confederation, an advocacy body for NHS providers, has called for the government to implement its Plan B winter Covid restrictions.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak today said “the data does not suggest we should be immediately moving to Plan B”.
“But of course we will keep an eye on that,” he said.
“The Plan B does not involve the same type of very significant economic restrictions we saw previously…so [a new furlough scheme] won’t be necessary.”