Covid: Liverpool comedy club's anger at vaccine passport error

A comedy club has received a deluge of online abuse over inaccurate reports of it being involved in a Covid vaccine passport scheme.

Press reports over the weekend suggested Liverpool's Hot Water Comedy Club was co-operating with government plans for vaccine "certification".

The club later decided to pull out of the pilot scheme using lateral flow tests at large audience events.

Co-owner Binty Blair, 36, blamed "confusion from the government".

"This is not what we signed up for," he said.

"Covid passports seem a dangerous and discriminatory idea."

The mistake appears to have come from a government press release sent out on Friday which was reported widely.

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport did not respond when asked to clarify what led to the apparent error.

Hot Water said it was inundated with a "hate campaign" of emails, social media messages and one-star TripAdvisor reviews.

Mr Blair said he feared the abuse had caused "lasting damage".

"I've had comedians I know get on to us and say things like 'Hot Water has sold its soul'. That stuff stings," he said.

"People have wished me dead. I know it's only a handful of idiots but it still gets to you.

"There have been about 4,000 different messages. The trouble is people remember this stuff. We've already been closed 12 months out of the last 15 and lost a million pounds."

The venue was among a selection taking part in the government's Events Research Programme, which will use before-and-after lateral flow tests to trial mass audience events ahead of the country's wider reopening in June.

Liverpool City Council confirmed any suggestion venues in the city would be involved in vaccine passport schemes was incorrect.

"The line which was briefed out by the government about Liverpool's events being included in the vaccine passports trials is incorrect - none of our events in Liverpool will involve them," a spokesman said.

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