Mixed reaction from Leeds nightclub bosses over introduction of COVID passports to party

Currently door staff at The Warehouse are checking clubbers are COVID free via NHS apps which can prove they have had negative lateral flow tests, and one of the club's owners says he envisages that checking people have had both vaccinations before they are allowed in would work in a similar way.

Kirk Allen said the world was operating in a "new normal" and his venue was happy to adapt if it meant they could stay open and customers still wanted to come out.

He said: "It is a new normal and one that we are happy to adjust to if it means we can be open and encourage people, then we will back it. I don't think it will be hard to manage at all. The system that we have got set up is working, we are ready to go with that and more than willing to adapt to make sure that people are comfortable to come into the club."

It comes as proof of full vaccination will be required as a condition of entry to nightclubs and other venues from the autumn, vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi said in the House of Commons on Monday - the day clubs were allowed to open for the first time since March 2020.

Mr Zahawi said a negative Covid-19 test would soon "no longer be sufficient" proof that a person was Covid-safe but promised that the plans would be subject to parliamentary scrutiny.

However, it emerged last night that MPs may not get a comprehensive vote on the introduction of coronavirus vaccine passports for entry into nightclubs and that Conservative rebels are planning to ally with Labour to defeat the plan which they say is "costly, open to fraud" and "impractical", as well as potentially ineffective.

Mr Allen said his main worry was if the scheme was implemented before the September date that has been aired.

He added: "The main worry will be if they implement that now - that would be an issue as some don't have the opportunity to be double jabbed by then if that is the only way to get in. In September, students return, it is a new academic year and it is a busy period for everyone across the UK. They would need to open the door (for both vaccinations in all age groups) to everyone for it to be acceptable. It would be unfair to do this before."

Peter Marks, chief executive of Rekom UK, which owns 42 nightclubs including chains Pryzm, which has a venue in Leeds, Eden and Fiction, said he felt "utter disbelief" after hearing Mr Johnson's plans for clubs later this year.

Mr Marks said: "What we've got here is a Government, in particular a prime minister, who is driven more by public opinion and opinion polls than I think is healthy.

"Sometimes you've got to show leadership and I don't think this man has that. I question his judgment. I think he's really good at lifting the spirits up, and I'm certainly not anti-Boris per se, but I think this been a terrible misjudgment on his behalf.

"To highlight the nightclub industry has no basis other than populist messaging and I completely disagree with it. To just say, bang, [and introduce vaccine passports], in the vain hope that nightclubs are so popular in the under 30s that it's going to make everyone shrug their shoulders and go and get a passport, is delusional.

"We will not be accepting passports as a requirement of entry until we are directed to do so because it's a suicide note for us. If it becomes enforced then I'm not going to break the law. I would never do that. But the reality is that I will keep banging the drum until common sense prevails but that's because this is populist claptrap."