Digital ID will be mandatory in order to work in the UK, as part of plans to tackle illegal migration.
Sir Keir Starmer said the new digital ID scheme would make it tougher to work in the UK illegally and offer “countless benefits” to citizens, while his senior minister Darren Jones said it could be “the bedrock of the modern state”.
However, opposition parties argued the proposals would not stop people crossing the Channel in small boats.
The prime minister set out his plans in a broader speech to a gathering of world leaders, in which he said it had been “too easy” for people to work illegally in the UK because the centre-left had been “squeamish” about saying things that were “clearly true”.
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Another Labour prime minister, Sir Tony Blair, tried to introduce compulsory ID cards but the idea was scrapped by the Conservative-Lib Dem coalition in 2010.
However, Sir Keir has recently said he believes the debate has “moved on in the last 20 years” as “we all carry a lot more digital ID now than we did”.
Labour believes its new proposal has public support, although more than a million people have signed a petition against the idea.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said the plan would “do nothing to stop the boats” but would “end up being used against law-abiding citizens while crooks walk free”.
She also expressed concern about the security of the data saying it would be a risk to put the information “in one database”.
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said his party would “fight tooth and nail” against the scheme which would “add to our tax bills and bureaucracy, whilst doing next to nothing to tackle channel crossings”.
Some campaign groups have also objected to the plan, with Liberty arguing it raised “huge concerns” about mass surveillance, while Big Brother Watch said it would make the country “less free”.
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The new digital ID will be held on people’s phones, in a similar way to contactless payment cards or the NHS app.
It is expected to include a person’s name, date of birth, nationality or residency status and a photo.
The consultation will also consider whether additional information such as an address should be included.
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The government said the roll-out would eventually make it simpler to apply for services like driving licences, childcare and welfare – as well as streamlining access to tax records.
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Emlyn Jenkins, 23, is against digital IDs, describing the plan as “fascistic and horrible”.
“How will people who are homeless be affected if they don’t have access to a smartphone or they don’t have access to consistent internet?” she asked.
Arianwen Fox-James, 20, says she can see some practical benefits but is uncomfortable with the idea of a “centralised hub of all the data”.
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data safety. “Every time these things get launched they get hacked,” she says. “Everyone hacks everything.”
Source: New digital ID will be mandatory to work in the UK
Another point: to fight migrants “taking jobs” (hint: they are not) they are going to make it more difficult for those who don’t have jobs by making them incur costs and difficulties to get a government issued ID somehow and for temporary employers to check the validity of these IDs. So that will probably actually raise the amount of illegal work being done.
Robin Edgar
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