Will we use Vaccine Passports? | Sajid Javid

"I think everyone agrees if you went ahead with something like vaccine passports, they are a huge intrusion into people's lives so you've got to be really really certain, That's what you want to do."

Health Secretary Sajid Javid tells #TimesRadio he's happy vaccine passports aren't currently part of the government's plans.

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Health Secretary Sajid Javid has told Times Radio he's pleased the introduction of vaccine passports won't go ahead.

But speaking to Tom Newton Dunn and Jack Blanchard on T&G on Sunday, he denied the move was a "wobble" over whether the introduction would be supported in Parliament:

It's not a wobble. We said we were going to look at this and look at it carefully and we set out what those plans were and the sectors that we were looking at. But I think everyone agrees if you went ahead with something like vaccine passports, they are a huge intrusion into people's lives so you've got to be really really certain, That's what you want to do. We have looked at it and whilst we keep it in reserve, I'm pleased to say that we will not be going ahead.

Would vaccine passports have got enough Parliamentary support?

I think what matters in Parliament is that if the government is going to propose anything that is going to infringe on people's freedoms especially, that it better have a really, really good case and unless you've got that case that you should be proposing it, That's why with vaccine passports we don't think it is necessary at this point. We're keeping it in reserve, but we're not going to go ahead.

After the announcement of a tax rise to pay for social care and help the NHS recover from the pandemic the former chancellor of the exchequer admitted he would prefer to see taxes come down:

Of course I'd want to see that come down over time and there's a number of ways to try and do that and one way is obviously in the future to see what taxes you might be able to cut and that's going to be a decision for the future for the chancellor. The other way to do it, as a Conservative, is to back the economy and back economic growth.

And on reports that ministers are to drop plans to overhaul planning rules, Mr Javid said:

If you look over the last couple of years there's been lots of really good pro-development, pro-housing changes that have been made, especially around permitted development rights but also in the support that's been provided to councils through things like affordable housing,...And so that's the kind of thing that is going to get us to the kind of housing numbers we need...I think the general direction has been the right one.

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