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Labour MPs are backing a proposal to introduce a universal digital identity card for anyone seeking to work or rent in the UK, paving the way for a comprehensive national ID system.
The proposal for a “BritCard”, set out on Thursday by the influential think-tank Labour Together, is framed as a way to strengthen enforcement of immigration rules, while making it simpler for landlords and employers to conduct checks that are already required.
MPs in constituencies being targeted by Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party have been pressing ministers to develop a digital ID programme as a way to demonstrate they can curb irregular immigration, as well as making it easier for people to access government services online.
“The most attractive thing about this is public service reform,” said Jake Richards, MP for Rother Valley and a leader of the campaign. Digital ID could be “a crucial tool in securing our borders” but its more transformative effects would be in “turbocharging” reform of health and education, tackling benefits fraud and better targeting welfare, he added.
But advocates of a universal scheme will need to overcome opposition from ministers scarred by Sir Tony Blair’s failed attempt to introduce compulsory ID cards under the last Labour government.
The scheme was scrapped by the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government in 2010 after big cost overruns and heavy opposition from civil liberties campaigners.
Home secretary Yvette Cooper, asked this week whether she would support a universal digital ID system, told a parliamentary committee that her focus was on “how we have digital ID for everyone coming to the UK”, rather than on a broader scheme for all citizens.
Officials said on Thursday that there were no plans to introduce a mandatory national identity system. But Labour Together, whose former director Morgan McSweeney is now chief of staff in Downing Street, said public attitudes had changed since the Blair era, and that its scheme would be “immensely popular” with people seeking smoother access to services.
The think-tank said its proposal differed from the former prime minister’s scheme because it draws on existing data sources and does not require a centralised database, or a physical card.
Its proposal is for a mandatory national identity credential, downloaded on to users’ smartphones, that would be issued to all those entitled to live or work in the UK and could be checked instantly by employers and landlords using a verifier app.
This would build on existing infrastructure and carry a relatively modest cost of up to £400mn to implement, and £5mn-10mn a year to administer, the think-tank estimates, suggesting it could be compulsory for anyone signing a new rental or employment contract from 2028, subject to a “test and learn” approach.
It could “lay the foundations for a fully functioning digital ID system”, according to the proposal, and would in the first instance make immigration enforcement easier, because the Home Office would be able to track when employers conducted checks and compare this with their payroll records.
Labour Together also argued the credential could prevent a future Windrush scandal, as it would prompt a one-off effort to find people with a legal claim to be in the UK and help them prove it.
The scandal saw officials discriminate against UK Commonwealth citizens who arrived in the UK before 1973 and had an automatic right to settlement but never received documents to prove it.
But the think-tank acknowledges that there would be “significant impacts” for people who were unable to obtain a Britcard, with a mechanism needed for review and redress where applications were refused unfairly.
A mandatory scheme would be a significant departure from work already in train — led by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology — to allow people to store and use existing identity documents in digital form.
This includes the development of a single log-in system to access public services, a digital driving licence and a GOV.UK digital wallet.
DSIT said: “Our GOV.UK wallet will allow users to securely store government-issued documents, like a driving licence, on their phone and use them easily in-person and online. Traditional physical documents will remain available.”
[English News]
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