THE Liberal Democrats have branded vaccine passports "undercover ID cards" as they warned against their introduction. 

Scottish party leader Willie Rennie urged the SNP Government to suspend any plans until MSPs can reconvene and scrutinise them after the election. 

Meanwhile, UK Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey is expected to demand a vote in Westminster over any proposals.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon yesterday said she thought "some kind of vaccine certification" will start to be used.

However, she said there are "really complex issues" involved and called for a "mature, grown-up debate". 

Mr Rennie said: "It would be unfair for millions of young people who have sacrificed so much in the last year to lose out and a major step for the government to insist on medical treatment before people can access every day services."

He added: "This seems like an almighty bureaucracy that would need to be created, at considerable cost, for limited benefit for such a short time. 

"The best way to restore our liberties is to suppress the virus with the voluntary use of the vaccine and measured restrictions. There are no shortcuts.

"The First Minister should listen to her own words from December when she told me that vaccine passports were "not something that we plan to have or that we favour".

Mr Davey said: "Vaccine passports are undercover ID cards. With governments north and south of the border previously attracted to ID cards, we must be extra vigilant about this development.

"Liberal Democrats opposed ID cards because of the concern about government storing personal information on a super database which could be misused in future.

"Neither the UK or Scottish Governments have ruled out using vaccine passports to limit access to public spaces, services and events.

"The best way to keep our country safe is suppress the community spread of the virus by vaccinating as many people as possible and finally delivering widespread asymptomatic testing so that new strains can be tracked and eliminated."