Dozens of Labour Party lawmakers have called on Prime Minister Sir Kier Starmer to revive the Tony Blair scheme of a digital identity system in Britain to, supposedly, clamp down on illegal migration.
An open letter from around 40 MPs from the Labour Growth Group, the Red Wall Group and the Blue Labour group urged the government to create a digital identity system to prevent under-the-table employment for illegal migrants as boat migrant crossings of the English Channel have surged to record highs under the Starmer government.
“This Government will only succeed if it is able to get a grip of illegal migration. A key plank of this initiative must be tackling illegal ‘off-the-books’ employment,” the letter stated.
“Without a gear shift in this area, we will be in danger of looking back wistfully at a golden, missed opportunity. Now is the time to act,” the document adds – and references how other major economies have long held ID cards.”
The notion of a national digital identity system has long been a pet project of former Labour prime minister and arch globalist Tony Blair, who has said that digital ID cards could contain personal details like passport and driver’s licence information, tax records and right to work documents.
After first attempting to introduce a digital ID in the wake of the September 11th attacks, Blair has gone on to use various justifications for such a system, including illegal immigration and making it “simpler and easier” to access government services.
However, many in Britain, dating back to the World Wars, have opposed such a system over privacy and government overreach concerns, seeing mandatory identity-carrying societies as being a fundamentally foreign, low-trust, and European idea. The last Labour government’s attempts to implement a digital ID system were ultimately scrapped at the last moment in 2010 after the election of the Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition government.
The campaign against national ID cards included then-Mayor of London Boris Johnson, who famously said that he would grind it up and “eat” it with his cornflakes.
However, such libertarian impulses from the Conservatives were ultimately abandoned during the Chinese Coronavirus crisis, when figures such as Mr Johnson sided with the likes of Blair to push for the adoption of vaccine passports, which many warned would have been a stepping stone towards a national ID system.
Indeed, the coronavirus passport laid the groundwork for the formation of a “digital identity” app in the European Union, which although yet to be implemented, is set to include digital forms of national IDs, driving licenses, banking details, medical prescriptions, and private data.
While a centralised system does not exist in the UK, there are plans to introduce a digital drivers licence by this year and online wallet systems have already been introduced for government documents.
Despite not committing to a national digital ID a government spokesman said per the BBC: “We are committed to using technology to improve lives and transform public services. Digital identities offer a secure, efficient way for people to prove who they are without physical documents, reducing fraud and saving time.
“Trusted providers following government rules are already conducting hundreds of thousands of digital checks monthly, helping people access employment, housing, and vital services more quickly and easily, while boosting productivity, driving economic efficiency, and supporting long-term growth as part of our plan for change.”
