Exclusive: Boris Johnson indicates people could need negative Covid test to go to the theatre

People could need a negative test for Covid-19 to go to a nightclub or theatre, Boris Johnson has indicated.

The Prime Minister said he was not ruling out some kind of domestic vaccination passport  for entry to venues, but said he preferred a system of rapid testing for Covid.

It is the first time Mr Johnson has set out his views on vaccine certification after the Cabinet's Covid Operations committee last week agreed to investigate such schemes as a way to unlock international travel.

Asked at Monday's Downing Street press conference whether he would support the idea of businesses and organisations requiring people to have such certificates, he said: "For the purposes of this country and doing things within the domestic UK economy, we will look at everything.

"What we are thinking of at the moment is more of a route that relies on mass vaccination – we intend to vaccinate all of the adults in the country by the autumn – plus lateral flow testing."

Those rapid tests would help "the toughest nuts to crack", including nightclubs and some theatres which had been unable to open last year.

"I think that will be the route that we go down and that businesses will go down," Mr Johnson said. "You are already seeing lots of business using the potential of rapid, on-the-day testing as well. I think that, in combination with vaccination, will probably be the route forward."

But he said it was "still early days – there are lots of discussions still to be had". 

Earlier, he had signalled his support for the use of vaccine certificates for people to travel to countries that required a Covid inoculation as a condition of entry. He said he felt such schemes may become "inevitable" to enable foreign travel to open up.

"I think inevitably there will be great interest in ideas in which you can show you had a vaccination against Covid, in the way that you sometimes have to show you have had a vaccination against yellow fever or other diseases in order to travel somewhere," he said.

"I think that is going to be very much in the mix down the road, I think that is going to happen."

His comments came as it emerged that cinemas have begun striking deals to use vaccine passports that could allow them to reopen their doors to those who have already received Covid-19 jabs. 

David Chadwick, of Verifiable Credentials, which has received Government funding to develop vaccine passports, said he had already agreed a tie-up with one UK theatre and cinema complex to trial the technology.

Under the scheme, Verifiable Credentials would create electronic certificates for people to show they have been vaccinated. These certificates would be verified by the NHS and stored in a digital wallet on users' smartphones.

When users buy a film ticket from a participating cinema, that ticket would be combined with the digital vaccine passport to generate a QR code that would provide them with access to the venue.  

Mr Chadwick said the trial was currently assessing the technical feasibility of the system rather than whether it was commercially or legally viable. However, he said "checking people's vaccination certificates might help cinemas to reopen in the future".

It comes as the industry struggles to stay afloat, with blockbuster film releases having been delayed and venues shuttered to curb the spread of the virus. 

Meanwhile, Mr Johnson's spokesman also made clear on Monday that it would be "discriminatory" for care homes to sack staff who refuse to be vaccinated. He said it remained the Government's priority that it was "asking everyone" to get vaccinated.