A BOLTON Tory MP says he will “likely oppose” vaccine passports in an upcoming Government vote in the House of Commons.

Chris Green, who represents Bolton West and Atherton, believes that there is no evidence to suggest that vaccine passports are necessary, or will help to combat the spread of coronavirus.

Speaking to The Bolton News, he said: “I expect that they will want to do it before the conference break at the end of September. They want to do it quickly and they want it to become established. They want it to be in place as they go into the autumn and winter time.

“I will have to see what the details are but I am expecting to oppose the bill. The government has a huge job to do in terms of persuading me that there is any necessity for vaccine passports.

“They will essentially operate as a domestic ID card. This is not about foreign travel. It’s about access to things that we use on a daily basis.

“It will start of with nightclubs, but how many people go to nightclubs? It’s irrelevant. But from there, they will want to increase the scope.

“There have been huge concerns about public transport and other places of work. There’s just no evidence to suggest that vaccine passports will make any difference.”

Mr Green was keen to point out that in Israel, cases are currently sky-rocketing exponentially, and have done since September - despite the country temporarily introducing vaccine passports earlier this year.

It comes as a new study from Imperial College London has found a link between Covid-19 vaccine hesitancy and a perceived lack of free will over vaccine passports.

The findings, taken from surveys of 1,358 people across the UK and Israel – two highly vaccinated countries – found that people who feel their sense of autonomy, or free will, is unmet by government incentives like vaccine passports are less likely to sign up for the vaccine.