Speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live this morning, the Chief Executive of Britain’s oldest brewing company, said that vaccine passports are discriminatory and would be in breach of data protection laws.
Jonathan Neame, the CEO of Shepherd Neame, said that the government should park the idea and move on. Yesterday, speaking before the House of Commons liaison committee, Boris Johnson said “That’s the kind of thing that may be up to individual publicans.”
Jonathan Neame told the BBC:
“It produces all kinds of potential issues around discrimination, civil liberties and possibly data protection. The idea of being forced on the door to ask people for identification and turn some people away, is a really challenging position.
If we start imposing additional measures or voluntarily asking for checks on the door, you kind of undermine what the purpose of a pub is, which is to be an inclusive, diverse, welcoming environment, that you can just drop into at a moments notice.
I just can’t imagine the situation of a family turning up at a pub where grandpa has forgotten his vaccination certificate, mum is pregnant and therefore been told not to have it and the kids are too young and half the family is turned away. That would be awful at a time when we’re all trying to reconnect as a society and learn to laugh and love humanity again.”
Cabinet Minister Michael Gove is leading a review into whether vaccine passports or covid status certificates can be introduced by the government. He is expected to publish his findings in the next few weeks.
