by A.P.
British government sources believe bosses will be able to use Health and Safety regulations to sack workers who do not get vaccinated.
Nadhim Zahawi, the government minister for vaccines, suggested back in December that “restaurants, bars, and cinemas, and other venues” could end up demanding some sort vaccine passport or other documentation before providing services, and anti-Brexit magnate Charlie Mullins has recently said he would introduce a “no vaccine, no job” policy, terminating workers who do not get vaccinated.
The Boris Johnson administration, including Zahawi, have since walked back any suggestion that they will make vaccinations compulsory, claiming “that’s not how we do things in the UK”. and said they “have no plan of introducing a vaccine passport — although in fact they are already trialling one.
Civil liberty activists have expressed concern, however, that if the government allows businesses to refuse service to the unvaccinated and fire unvaccinated workers, assisted by the existence even of technically non-compulsory government-backed virus passes, that people will have no real choice in the matter — and a Telegraph report which shows officials believe firings, at least, would be legal will do little to allay their concerns.