‘This Won’t Fly’– Farage Blasts Boris Johnson’s Pub Vaccine Passport Push

PLYMOUTH, ENGLAND - NOVEMBER 25: Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage speaks at the Brexit Par
Finnbarr Webster/Getty Images
Kurt Zindulka

Nigel Farage has warned that the vaccine passport schemes being developed by Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government are “unworkable”, going on to deride the British leader as having a lack of principles.

The Brexit leader said that trying to introduce vaccine passports domestically, to go to the pub or other public venues, “won’t fly”, saying that “it’s unworkable and frankly, to put this upon our struggling publicans at this moment in time would be completely outrageous”.

Mr Farage also criticised Johnson for his flip-flopping and political opportunism, telling the Mail on Sunday: “The funny thing about Boris is, everyone says he is this free-market libertarian. But what we have seen all through this is that Boris doesn’t really stand for very much at all.”

He also questioned the practicality of such a system, saying: “Let’s say on April 12 I want to go to the Blacksmith’s Arms in Cudham with my son who’s 29. He hasn’t had the jab so can he come in or can he not come in?”

The MoS also reported on Sunday that the British government is in talks with Israel about the Middle Eastern country’s ‘Green Pass‘ digital vaccine passport system. The government is expected to release its so-called COVID Status Certification review, headed up by Cabinet Minister Michael Gove, sometime in April.

Johnson has suggested that pubs could bar unvaccinated people from their businesses, saying that the “concept of vaccine certification should not be totally alien to us”.

British tech firms, which have received thousands of pounds in government grants, are also developing facial recognition vaccine passport apps, ostensibly for use by private businesses such as pubs.

However, despite the government’s Orwellian response to the Chinese coronavirus, Mr Farage predicted that with Britain’s comparably successful vaccination programme combined with the ineffectiveness of the Labour Party, “the British public are of a mind to forgive Boris everything else… there is no opposition.”

“To be honest, whatever his flaws, I suspect he can be Prime Minister for as long as he wants,” he predicted.

Mr Farage did strike a more positive note when questioned about the European Union’s vaccine rollout fiasco when compared to Brexit Britain.

As of March 26nd, 48.64 people per 100 have had at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine in the United Kingdom, compared to just 15.07 per 100 on average throughout the entirety of the EU, according to Our World in Data.

“I couldn’t have wished for anything that was more important or gave greater clarity. I’m disappointed for the people in Europe, they haven’t got the vaccine but I’m pleased that European solidarity has broken down and that people are realising actually, their duty is to look after the people that voted for them,” Farage said.

“Death is national and there has been a very big reawakening among European electorates,” the Brexit champion added.

Mr Farage said that his decision to step away from electoral politics came at the perfect time, with Remainer commentators on both sides of the English Channel admitting that Brexit Britain has prevailed over the bureaucratic bumbling of Brussels.

The Brexit leader said: “At a time when the world can see that leaving the EMA (European Medicines Agency) will undoubtedly save thousands, maybe tens of thousands of lives in this country, what better moment could I have chosen to do it?”

“And now you’ve got Ursula von der Leyen threatening to seize control of the means of production,” Farage said in reference to the EU Commission president’s threats to blockade the export of vaccines contractually intended to go to Britain.

“Now there is a word for that, it’s called communism,” Farage concluded.

Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter here @KurtZindulka

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