Labour welcomes U-turn on mandatory Covid vaccinations for NHS workers

Wes Streeting has welcomed an announcement from Sajid Javid that the government will no longer be pursuing its controversial plan to make Covid vaccination compulsory for health workers, as he now considers it not “proportionate”.

Addressing parliament this evening, the Health Secretary told MPs: “I am announcing we will launch a consultation on ending vaccination as a condition of deployment in health and all social care settings”.

Streeting welcomed the move but argued that it “remains the professional duty of duty of all NHS and care workers” to get vaccinated, “as it is the duty of all of us to protect ourselves, our loved ones and to protect our society”.

Labour has consistently opposed mandatory vaccinations for the wider population, but the party said it had been convinced of the case for mandatory vaccinations for NHS workers due to the rapid spread of the Omicron variant late last year.

The Labour leadership whipped its backbenchers to support ministers over compulsory jabs for NHS staff in December. 22 Labour MPs voted against the government and two Labour frontbenchers quit their posts to defy the party line.

“We on these benches supported the initial policy in December. Since then, we have seen a significant increase in vaccinations among NHS staff with tens of thousands more staff now protected,” the Shadow Health Secretary said today.

“Clearly now, Madam Deputy Speaker, things have now moved on – both in terms of our overall level of infection and in terms of our understanding of the latest variant. It has also become clear that to follow through with this policy could see tens of thousands of staff be forced to leave.”

Javid argued today that mandatory vaccinations for health workers was “the right policy at the time, supported by the evidence” but said the government now knows that Omicron is “intrinsically less severe” than other strains of the virus.

“Despite it being their choice to leave their jobs, we have to consider the impact of the workforce in NHS and social care settings, especially at a time when we have a shortage of workers,” the Health Secretary added.

“It is not only right but responsible to revisit the balance of risks and opportunities that guided our decision last year. I believe it is no longer proportionate to require vaccination as a condition of deployment through statute.”

Since the government announced that all NHS workers would need to be fully jabbed by April this year, the Royal College of Nursing, the Royal College of Midwives and the Royal College of GPs have pushed for the requirement to be delayed.

The government introduced a legal requirement for care home staff to be fully vaccinated, which came into effect in November last year. An estimated 40,000 people lost their jobs as a result of the policy.

NHS sources were said to have been worried about the mandatory policy given some regions across the UK had a very low vaccine uptake. The Health Secretary said last week that around 77,000 NHS workers remain unvaccinated against the virus.