UK Conservative MPs Threaten to Boycott Party Conference If Vaccine Passports Required

Conservative MP and former junior Brexit Minister, Steve Baker, speaks to members of the media as he arrives to attend a meeting of the pro-Brexit European Research Group (ERG) in London, on Sept. 12, 2018. Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP/Getty Images

A number of Tory MPs said they would boycott the Conservative Party conference this year as the conference reportedly will require vaccine passports.

After MailOnline on Thursday reported that the annual conference will require its attendants to be double jabbed with a CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus vaccine this year—citing an unnamed Tory insider—Mark Jenkinson, MP for Workington said he won’t be attending if that’s the case.

“I’m booked for @conservatives party conference, I’m double jabbed,” Jenkinson wrote on Twitter.

“I won’t be going to [the] conference if we’re excluding people on the basis of vaccination their status [sic].”

Steve Baker, Conservative MP and deputy chairman of the COVID Recovery Group, joined the boycott.

“With a heavy heart, and apologies to event organisers, likewise,” Baker said, quoting Jenkinson’s tweet.

Tory peer Baroness Morrissey said she would join them, and reports suggested more could follow.

Asked to confirm whether or not the conference will require vaccines passports or COVID-19 status proof, a member of the Conservative Party Conference team told The Epoch Times that they will follow government guidelines.

A boycott would be an embarrassment for Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who will hope he can get his agenda on track and unify the party after the CCP virus pandemic forced 2020’s conference online and caused divisions among his ranks.

Labour said it would not support vaccine passports, criticising the scheme as “costly, open to fraud” and “impractical,” as well as potentially ineffective.

The government currently “encourages” venues to check the NHS COVID pass, with which patrons can show proof of vaccination, a recent negative test, or natural immunity, but ministers have stressed that they “reserve the right to mandate its use in the future.”

The government is also planning to make full CCP virus vaccination the condition of entry to nightclubs and other crowded venues from late September and said that a negative test will no longer be sufficient.

A number of MPs have questioned whether Parliament would be classified as a crowded venue. When confronted with the question on Thursday, vaccine minister Nadhim Zahawi said the proposed rule will not apply to public buildings, essential travel, and essential retails.

PA contributed to this report.