Kier Starmer has today confirmed plans for a digital ID card scheme that is set to combat illegal working in the UK.
The ID will prove individual’s right to work, with Starmer saying that people will be unable to work without a valid digital card.
The plans were laid out at the Global Progress Action conference in London, with roll-out expected to take place by the end of the Parliment.
Whilst concerns have been raised about data security and potential government tracking, the government website highlights the potential to streamline services including tax records, welfare and license application.
As reported by the BBC, storing the ID cards in a digital wallet poses little risk to the user. However if plans include an app development, privacy and tracking becomes more complicated.
Starmer made clear that the ID cards will be compulsory for anyone looking to work in the UK, kept on people’s phones with details specifying an individual’s name, date of birth, nationality or residency status, and a photograph.
He said that it’s been “too easy” for people to “slip into the shadow economy and remain here illegally” and urged that the plan will make UK borders “more secure”.
The move will mean that employers can no longer rely on a National Insurance number, which can easily be borrowed or stolen from someone else.
The idea of ID cards was initially proposed by Tony Blair by way of the Identity Cards Act 2006. It faced backlash over concerns around data handling, rather than the cards themselves, and was repealed in 2011 by the Conservative / Liberal Democrats coalition.
Unlike the initial scheme, the digital ID’s, provisionally called the “BritCard”, are set to be issued free of charge.
On the government website, an “outreach programme” is mentioned alongside the venture, to provide “face-to-face support for citizens who are struggling to access the scheme.” No further details are given about this but it is expected to support the elderly, homeless, and other groups who may struggle to adopt the new digital ID.
Questions have been raised around access to necessary technology and whether gender and addresses will be included as necessary information.
The PM calls it “an enormous opportunity for the UK” and recognises general concerns around “a secure border and controlled migration.”
The IDs will be available for all UK citizens and legal residents and will be required in order to work. For students, pensioners, or others not seeking employment, possessing a digital ID will be optional, and there will not be a reason to require them in day-to-day use.
Zack Polanski, leader of The Green Party, called the comment “bullshit” and said that “politicians have talked about little else for decades and almost always in the most toxic, dehumanising way possible.”
In another challenge to the decision, leader of Reform, Nigel Farage, also took to X to say that it would make “no difference to illegal immagration, but it will be used to control and penalise the rest of us.”
Farage concluded “the state should never have this much power”, while Kemi Badenoch, Conservative leader, said that while there are arguments “for and against” digital ID, making it mandatory “requires a proper national debate”.
In a post on X she said: “Can we really trust [Labour] to implement an expensive national programme that will impact all of our lives and put additional burdens on law abiding people? I doubt it.”
Featured image via No10 / Flickr.
