Gove hints at vaccine passport app

It wasn’t so long ago that ministers were lining up on broadcast to insists vaccine passports were out of the question when it came to the UK. While they could be used for travel abroad, the UK was — as Matt Hancock put it — not a ‘papers, please’ country. Instead, the UK appears to be turning into an ‘app, please’ nation. On Monday, Michael Gove met with MPs across the House for a private ‘listening exercise’ on immunity IDs.

Although the purpose of the session was supposedly to gather MPs’ thoughts on the issue of vaccine passports, attendees were left with the distinct impression that they would be going ahead regardless of their views. The general idea being discussed is that individuals could be asked to show either a vaccine passport, a negative Covid test or proof of antibodies to enter a venue.

MPs on the call understand it will likely take the form of an app — with NHSX (behind the troubled contact tracing app) already looking into how this might work. The