NEW Forest West MP Sir Desmond Swayne has warned the Government against “any kind of suggestion of coercion” when rolling out coronavirus vaccination.

Conservative backbencher Sir Desmond, who has been an outspoken critic of the handling of the response to Covid-19, questioned why spectators at sports venues will be able to order a pint of alcohol without food, while this was not the case in pubs.

The veteran politician said if the Government allowed discrimination against people who did not get vaccinated, which he coined as “vaccinationism”, would seal its reputation as “the most authoritarian since the Commonwealth of the 1650s”.

This was a reference to the period which involved the leadership of Oliver Cromwell following the execution of Charles I.

During the debate on the latest coronavirus tier restriction legislation, Sir Desmond told the House of Commons: "Why will you be able to buy a pint in a sports venue without getting anything to eat but if you order a pint in a pub you will have to have a substantial meal? I will leave that hanging as the great existential question of the day

“Suppression in anticipation of vaccination is the reason for these measures before us today.

“People have been writing to me for months terrified that a vaccine will be compulsory and I have responded by saying don’t be so absolutely ridiculous, that could never possibly happen. We are a Conservative Government after all.

“And now we discover that a vaccination may be a passport to acquisition of your civil liberties and without which you will have all sorts of things that you would be able to do, denied to you.

“Can I say that that would be absolutely disproportionate to a virus with a mortality rate of verging on one per cent. It would equally be a terrible precedent to set for other vaccines and medicines, so I hope that we can get away from that.

“The way to persuade people to have a vaccine is, of course, to line up the entire Government and its ministers and their loved ones and let them take it first and then get all the luvvies, the icons of popular culture, out on the airwaves singing its praises.

“To have any kind of suggestion of coercion, absolutely feeds the conspiracy theory that are we being cowed and our liberties being taken away.”

Stephen Baker MP interjected that the Government needs to make a decision on if it was going to allow businesses, such as airlines, to discriminate against people who had not had a vaccine.

Sir Desmond added: “It would not be discrimination, it would be vaccinationism, which we must of course resist.

“The other thing any kind of coercion would be to set the seal on this Government’s reputation as the most authoritarian since the Commonwealth of the 1650s.

“But it is as nothing to the enthusiasm of the front bench opposite for even more coercive and restrictive measures.”