THE Scottish Government will face opposition to its vaccine passports plan this week when it is voted on at Holyrood.

Last week, Nicola Sturgeon announced the plan to require a vaccine certificate to show people had both doses to gain entry to nightclubs and big live events, including many football matches.

The First Minister said it is hoped to encourage more people, especially in the younger age groups where take up is lower, to get vaccinated.

However, the Lib Dems have said they are totally opposed to the proposals and now Scottish Labour said they will be voting against the plan too.

Anas Sarwar, Scottish Labour leader, said the move was more about the Scottish Government appearing to be in control than a public health measure.

He said: “Scottish Labour’s opposition to domestic vaccine passports is not opposition for opposition’s sake. We have supported the government at key moments throughout the pandemic.

“Nor is this an ideological opposition. This is simply about what works, what will make an actual difference and what will keep people safe. This decision from the government is more about trying to look in control of a virus that is clearly out of control.”

Sarwar said it could even deepen the anti vaccine feelings of some people and be counter-productive.

He also said the priority should be actions that will reduce the number of positive covid cases, favouring people providing proof of negative tests for large scale events rather than vaccine passports.

He added: “The immediate and fundamental focus of the government must be on fixing the failing Test and Protect system and pulling out all the stops to ensure maximum vaccine coverage.”

Business leaders, the night time economy and Scottish football authorities have also expressed concern about vaccine certification.

Humza Yousaf, the Health Secretary admitted he had previously been sceptical and said the move was to incentivise younger people to take the vaccine.

He said: “We know the uptake is lower amongst the younger age cohorts and therefore anything that helps to incentivise that is helpful.

“I have said in the past I am sceptical about Covid passports so it is not a decision we have taken lightly, but bearing in mind the number of cases we have been seeing, we want to increase that vaccine uptake in the younger age cohort.”

The UK Government is backing the use of vaccine passports too.

Nadhim Zahawi, vaccines minister, told Sky’s Trevor Phillips on Sunday: “We are looking at, by the end of September when everyone has had the opportunity to be fully vaccinated, for the large venues, venues that could end up causing a real spike in infections, where we need to use the certification process.

“If you look at what the FA have done, they’ve done so brilliantly in terms of checking vaccine status to reopen football.

“That is the sort of right thing to do and we are absolutely on track to continue to make sure that we do that.

“There’s a reason for that ... the reason being is that, I, as does the Prime Minister, want to make sure the whole economy remains open.”

Yesterday, Scotland recorded 6,368 new cases of coronavirus in the previous 24 hours.

No new deaths were reported in the figures from the Scottish Government, though registrar’s offices are usually closed at weekends.

A total of 48,033 tests were carried out, of which 14.2% were positive.

There were 719 people in hospital with recently-confirmed Covid-19 and 61 in intensive care.

A total of 4,121,962 people have received the first dose of a coronavirus vaccine and 3,726,769 have received their second dose.