Neither Boris Johnson nor Keir Starmer seems able to decide where they stand on vaccine passports

How can the Labour leader oppose a government that doesn’t have a policy, asks John Rentoul

The Labour leader, whose name is not ‘Keith’ (Getty Images)

You know the type. They’re all over social media and the below-the-line comment section on internet articles thinking it’s hilarious to call Keir Starmer “Keith”. They think he’s “Tory-lite” and berate him for failing to oppose the government.

I doubt that they will be satisfied with Starmer’s cautious opposition to something that probably isn’t going to happen anyway. The government doesn’t seem sure about proposing vaccine passports, and the Labour leader doesn’t seem to be sure about opposing them, so it is not only the tiny minority of online Starmer-baiters who are entitled to feel puzzled.

Boris Johnson was invited to set out the government’s policy at yesterday’s Downing Street briefing, and offered only an empty space. Everyone knows that some form of vaccine certificate will be needed for international travel, and that there is a case for requiring evidence of vaccination for staff working with old or vulnerable people (the prime minister cited the requirement for surgeons to be vaccinated against hepatitis B as an example). But what people want to know is whether they will be required to show coronavirus ID to go to the pub, restaurant, cinema or gig.