Keir Starmer announces digital ID plan

Hopes smartphone based ‘Britcard’ will reduce attractiveness of UK for potential illegal immigrants

Prime Minister says that a smartphone based digital ID will help combat illegal working and facilitate access to public services. Not everyone is convinced.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer has announced plans for a new digital ID scheme for all “UK citizens and legal residents” that, he claims, will combat illegal working and make it easier to access public services.

The scheme, which has been dubbed “BritCard” will require a smartphone, will work alongside the digital driving licence the government previously announced, and will provide verification of an individual’s right to live and work in the UK. Holders would be required to show their ID card before starting a new job or renting a home.

The government claims it will “make it simpler to apply for services like driving licences, childcare and welfare, while streamlining access to tax records”, but adds that there will be no requirement for individuals to carry their ID everywhere or be asked to produce it “but digital ID will be mandatory as a means of proving your right to work”.

The government says that this will stop people without the right to work in the UK from working, reducing the attraction of illegally migrating to the UK or working illegally on a visa that does not allow it.

However, it is already a requirement to hold a National Insurance number to work in the UK and it is unclear how the BritCard would prevent, for example, couriers from renting their accounts to third parties.

“It will send a clear message that if you come here illegally, you will not be able to work, deterring people from making these dangerous journeys,” the government claimed in a statement announcing the policy.

It continued: “This initiative builds on the government’s crackdown on illegal working and its mission to control borders as part of the Plan for Change. Under this government, illegal working arrests have soared by 50 per cent, and new legislation is being brought forward to help stop illegal working in the gig economy.”

Starmer unveiled his plans at the Global Progressive Action Conference in London, an event attended by the Prime Ministers of Australia and Canada, which already have similar schemes. For example, in Australia a digital ID is required to buy alcohol, while Estonia’s ID scheme enables access to child benefits, health records and applications for nursery places from one location.

Security concerns persist

The proposal has been rattling around senior levels of government since at least April, and has been promoted by Labour Together, a thinktank that helped get Starmer elected as Labour leader in 2020.

However, the proposal will face significant opposition, in cabinet, Parliament and society.

David Davis MP, who successfully campaigned against ID cards when the last Labour government sought to introduce them, pledged to continue his opposition.

“While digital IDs and ID cards sound like modern and efficient solutions to problems like illegal immigration, such claims are misleading at best. The systems involved are profoundly dangerous to the privacy and fundamental freedoms of the British people,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

He continued: “No system is immune to failure, and we have seen time and again governments and tech giants fail to protect people's personal data. If world-leading companies cannot protect our data, I have little faith that Whitehall would be able to do better.”

Journalist Andrew Orlowski has claimed that the BritCard will be based on One Login, a digital identity verification scheme that was part-developed in Romania and which, according to whistleblowers, is fundamentally insecure.

“It would only take one developer with the right administrator privileges to create havoc on the system, perhaps developing ‘back doors’ into One Login that no one would even be aware of,” he claimed .

Within a day of making the announcement, an existing petition against ID cards topped one million signatures and this morning stands at more than 2.4 million.

The roll-out of an ID card scheme was specifically ruled out by business secretary Jonathan Reynolds in July last year, shortly after Labour was elected. That followed a suggestion by former Prime Minister Tony Blair that ID cards would help control immigration.

New Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood is believed to be in favour.