Mandatory Digital IDs to be Introduced By Iain McLean

“Let me spell it out. You will not be able to work in the United Kingdom if you do not have a digital ID. It’s as simple as that.” Prime Minister Keir Starmer explained during his official announcement of the mandatory scheme last Friday.

Starmer claimed that digital IDs would prevent immigrants that come to the UK illegally from “slipping into the shadow economy and remain here illegally”. The scheme comes as part of Labour’s crackdown on illegal immigrants settling in the UK. The reasoning behind this is that if they can’t work here due to not having digital ID, they won’t stay.

This isn’t the first time the party has tried to set up digital IDs however, with former prime minister Tony Blair trying to set up “National IDs” back in 2005. This plan was scrapped almost immediately.

The IDs will be stored on your phone inside a GOV.UK digital wallet. The digital ID would be stored here alongside your digital driver’s license.

In a statement on the official UK Government website, it claims, “The government will listen to a range of views on how the service will be delivered, as part of a public consultation to be launched later this year.”

This is not without controversy however, as the Liberal Democrats are already calling the plan “worrying to older people, people living in poverty and disabled people who are most likely to be excluded.”

Rebecca Vincent, Interim Director of Big Brother Watch warned, “we are sleepwalking into a dystopian nightmare where the entire population will be forced through myriad of digital checkpoints to go about our everyday lives”. Since the announcement they have now set up a full website against the idea.

However, according to a YouGov poll back in June, 57% were in favour of a digital ID system being implemented. In this same vein, IPOS polling in September also reinforced this, with their polling again showing 57% supported the idea.

IPSOS even polled on why people would support the idea with the top results being, having a single card to act as ID, passport, and driving licence (43%), making it easier to prove one's identity (41%), preventing illegal immigration (40%), having important medical information to hand in case of an accident (40%) and for general security (40%).

The same IPSOS findings also came with a list of reasons as to why the public did not support digital IDs. The two main concerns were:

Privacy concerns,

“Almost a third of the public overall worry about personal data being used without permission (32%), sold to private companies (31%), or the system being open to abuse (31%)”

A lack of trust in Government,

“Confidence in the government to handle the scheme is low. Most Britons lack confidence in the government to hold personal information securely (51%, up from 41% in 2004*). Furthermore, 61% are not confident that the government could introduce the scheme smoothly, pessimism a very similar figure to the 58% in 2004.”

Since the rumours began to swirl about possible digital ID cards, a petition was set up on the UK parliament website. This petition now sits at 1,006,758 signatures, a figure which is rising by a few hundred more signatures every second.