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Britain should embrace voluntarism identity cardSir keir starmer just a few weeks after announcing digital identity will become mandatory To work in the UK.
The Prime Minister said that while mandatory digital IDs are “very important” for employment, the UK could get “significant benefits” By adopting the cards for wider use.
His comments came aboard a plane to India for a two-day business visit to Mumbai, where he will hold meetings on how the South Asian nation uses digital IDs.
Opinion polls show that support for the cards declined after this The PM’s announcement that working in the UK will become mandatory by 2029 was his key statement on the eve of the Labor conference last month.
But the prime minister rejected suggestions he was eroding public support for the scheme, saying the IDs were vital to delivering on his party’s manifesto promise to tackle illegal migration.
“We need to pay attention to the fact that many people can come to this country and work illegally,” he said.
“And that’s why mandating ID to work is really important. I think there’s a case to be made about the benefits of voluntary ID in other areas, and obviously we need to make that case.
“I think it’s a really important discussion for us. So on one hand, it’s mandatory for work, but I really think it would be a good passport.
“I don’t know how many times the rest of you have had to look for three bills in the bottom drawer when you want to enroll your children in school or apply for it or apply for it, [it] Drives me to despair. I think we can make significant gains.”
He further said, “We are going to a country, India, where they have already created ID and have had huge success with it.”
On the day the Prime Minister officially announced the ID cards, one of his closest political aides suggested that they could be extended to become “the basis of a modern state”.
Darren Jones, the new Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister, said they could be used in the future to deliver “really quite exciting public service reforms”.
In response, Tory peer and former cabinet minister David Frost said Mr Jones’ comments were “why so many of us are worried about digital ID”, and a petition against digital ID received over 1 million signatures.
Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy stressed on Friday that plans to introduce digital IDs do not mean everyone will have to carry one and it will be “completely their choice” whether people use it or not.
The ID card scheme, which would require an Act of Parliament to implement, follows mounting pressure on ministers to take more drastic action to tackle migration as small boat crossings hit record highs this summer and the backlog of asylum applications remains above 75,000 – pressure increased by Reform UK’s success in the elections.
At the same time, Sir Keir faces intense pressure on public services and rising welfare costs, after his own MPs blocked his plan to cut £5 billion from the social security budget earlier this year.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has dismissed the ID plans as a “gimmick that will do nothing to stop the boats”.
The Liberal Democrats have said they will fight “to the teeth” against the “nonsense” plan, while Amnesty International said the move is a “dangerous overreaction by the government that puts the rights of all people in the UK at risk”.