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Starmer says digital ID cards an 'enormous opportunity' for UK and will make working illegally tougher
Keir Starmer says plans for a new digital ID held on people’s phones will be an “enormous opportunity” for the UK and make working illegally tougher.
Digital ID will become mandatory as a means of proving the right to work under the plans, but people will not be required to carry or asked to produce it. It will be available to UK citizens and legal residents by the end of this parliament, reports the PA news agency.
Starmer said:
I know working people are worried about the level of illegal migration into this country. A secure border and controlled migration are reasonable demands, and this government is listening and delivering.
Digital ID is an enormous opportunity for the UK. It will make it tougher to work illegally in this country, making our borders more secure.
And it will also offer ordinary citizens countless benefits, like being able to prove your identity to access key services swiftly – rather than hunting around for an old utility bill.
Starmer admitted Labour has previously shied away from addressing concerns over immigration said it is now “essential” to tackle “every aspect of the problem of illegal immigration” in an article for The Telegraph.
The prime minister argued that it is possible to be concerned about immigration while rejecting Reform UK’s “toxic” approach. “There is no doubt that for years left-wing parties, including my own, did shy away from people’s concerns around illegal immigration,” he wrote.
Reform UK called the plans a “cynical ploy” designed to “fool” voters into thinking something is being done about immigration. Tory leader Kemi Badenoch also dismissed the plans as a “gimmick that will do nothing to stop the boats”.
The Liberal Democrats said they would not support mandatory digital ID where people are “forced to turn over their private data just to go about their daily lives”.
Meanwhile, Tony Blair’s thinktank said the cards, which will be mandatory by the end of this parliament, could act as a “gateway to government services”.
More on this story in a moment, but first here are some other developments:
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Ministers are pushing through powers to photograph, name and shame offenders who have been ordered to complete unpaid community work in England and Wales. The sentencing bill, now moving through parliament, will for the first time give probation officers “a legal power” to take and publish the names and pictures of individuals ordered by courts to tidy grass verges, litter-pick or scrub graffiti.
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Leading climate figures and Labour MPs have urged Keir Starmer to attend the crucial Cop30 climate summit this November, after aides advised him not to attend for fear of attracting the ire of the Reform party. Simon Stiell, the UN’s climate chief, said: “Cop30 is where leaders are expected to come and roll up their sleeves, make deals to help their nation’s economy transition faster, creating more jobs, and guide the world on what next steps we take together.”
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Britain will violate its nuclear disarmament obligations if Labour presses ahead with the £1bn purchase of 12 F-35A fighter jets, according to a specialist legal opinion prepared on behalf of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND). Two international lawyers argue that the government’s plan to reintroduce air-launched nuclear weapons for the RAF will break a key provision of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT) signed by the UK and 190 other countries.
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Hopes that international rail services could return to UK stations abandoned by Eurostar have grown, with the government backing new competitors who plan to serve stops in Kent. Ministers have been leaning on the rail regulator to give crucial space on the railway to prospective entrants who pledge to bring cross-Channel services back to Ashford and Ebbsfleet stations – and possibly London’s Stratford International.
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No 10 says digital ID cards scheme will take in 'best aspects' from similar schemes around world
Andrew Sparrow
Good morning. I’m Andrew Sparrow, taking over from Amy Sedghi.
Downing Street has now sent out a news release about its identity cards scheme. It promotes the idea as a means to combat illegal working, but it also argues that the system will provide a consumer benefit to ordinary citizens not related to the illegal migration issue.
And it says the government is learning from model digital ID schemes around the world. It says:
In designing the digital ID scheme, the government will ensure that it works for those who aren’t able to use a smartphone, with inclusion at the heart of its design. The public consultation will engage with groups who aren’t as experienced with the digital world, like the homeless and older people, learning from other countries that have done this well.
The scheme will be rolled out alongside an outreach programme, including face-to-face support for citizens who are struggling to access the scheme.
This will result in a service that takes the best aspects of the digital identification systems that are already up and running around the world:
-In Australia, citizens can access a range of private services, from banking to buying alcohol, with their digital identification, reducing the need for multiple separate accounts and pieces of paper.
-In Estonia, digital ID has revolutionised parents’ lives by enabling access to child benefits, health records and applications for nursery places seamlessly, never having to provide the same information twice.
-In Denmark, students can use their national digital ID to log in and automatically retrieve education records and qualifications in job and university applications.
-And in India, the government has saved around US $10 billion annually by reducing fraud and leakages in welfare schemes.
Labour MPs call for action to tackle deprivation in coastal ‘sea wall’ seats
Peter Walker
A group of Labour MPs representing coastal areas will demand urgent action to tackle deprivation in their seats, warning a lack of progress could leave them vulnerable to Reform.
They will use the party conference this weekend to call for an equivalent of the London Challenge, which turned around failing schools in the capital under Tony Blair’s government, but with a focus on post-16 training and apprenticeships.
The Coastal Parliamentary Labour party group, set up earlier this year by Polly Billington, MP for East Thanet, which takes in the Kent coast around Margate and Ramsgate, is also demanding a dedicated minister for coastal communities, as well as spending on public transport and efforts to reduce entrenched health inequalities.
The campaign is a counterpoint to the repeated focus on “red wall” seats, generally based in formerly industrial towns and cities in the north and Midlands, dozens of which were won by the Conservatives in 2019 and re-taken by Labour last year.
While definitions of the “red wall” differ, Labour holds at least as many“sea wall” seats, with 66 MPs in the coastal group, and many of them face similar or greater levels of deprivation.
The call for major investment in skills and training, with a focus on non-graduate jobs, is because of the particular problems faced by many coastal areas of young people being neither in work nor education, and the “brain drain” of young people who do get degrees away from such areas.
The London Challenge is often cited as one of the greatest policy successes of the Blair years. When Labour came into power in 1997, many London schools were failing, with only 16% of students reaching the then-accepted standard of getting five GCSEs at grades A to C.
But a combination of extra investment of about £40m a year, which involved not just new school buildings but also better school leadership, meant that by 2010, London schools tended to out-perform those elsewhere in England.
The coastal MPs said there is also a political imperative for ministers to focus on improving their areas, given Reform’s record in performing well in such places – of the five seats the party won in 2024, four were coastal.
Lammy says Gaza conflict is 'inhumane' and 'utterly unjustifiable' in address to UN general assembly
Deputy prime minister David Lammy has called the conflict in Gaza “inhumane” and “utterly unjustifiable”.
Addressing the United Nations general assembly in New York, Lammy said:
What is happening in Gaza is indefensible, it is inhumane, it is utterly unjustifiable and it must end now.
He said the UK had “proudly” recognised Palestine and said both its people and those of Israel “deserve better”. He said:
Better than the horrific acts by Hamas on 7 October that left children without their parents and parents without their children.
Better than the torment of families waiting desperately for the return of their loved ones from the most barbaric captivity. Better than the fanatical rule by Hamas, a vile, pitiless terrorist organisation that must have no future in Gaza.
Better than Israel’s denial of life-saving humanitarian aid and the catastrophic famine that it has caused.
As Israel escalates its military operations and displaces Palestinian families again and again and again, there can be no answer to these horrors but concerted diplomatic action to keep the hope of peace alive.
Earlier this week, foreign secretary Yvette Cooper told the UN that recognising Palestinian statehood must be a “spur” to action rather than a “substitute” for it.
Cooper said the UK’s decision to recognise Palestine reflects the “grave reality” that the two-state solution is in “profound peril”.
A non-profit advocacy group for migrants and refugees has said that mandatory digital ID cards will “entrench discrimination, supercharge the hostile environment and create a surveillance state”.
In a statement, Josephine Whitaker-Yilmaz, head of advocacy at Praxis said:
Far from reducing irregular migration, mandatory digital ID will entrench discrimination, supercharge the hostile environment and create a surveillance state nobody asked for.
Migrants already have to prove their rights to work and rent with a digital visa. It’s hard to see what difference a digital ID will make, other than requiring all of us to sacrifice our civil liberties.
We know the government can’t be trusted with our data, whether that’s the failed Covid app to breaches that exposed EU nationals. And Windrush showed us that it’s people of colour and migrants with every right to be here who will end up wrongly blocked from accessing services and exercising their rights.
Instead of wasting millions on digital ID schemes, the government should invest in policies that deliver real economic benefits-like taxing the wealthy and fixing our broken housing system.
Ministers plan to allow naming and shaming of offenders completing community sentences
Rajeev Syal
Ministers are pushing through powers to photograph, name and shame offenders who have been ordered to complete unpaid community work in England and Wales.
The sentencing bill, now moving through parliament, will for the first time give probation officers “a legal power” to take and publish the names and pictures of individuals ordered by courts to tidy grass verges, litter-pick or scrub graffiti.
The move, pushed through by the government “to build confidence” in community sentences, has sparked concern that it could instead be used to humiliate and embarrass offenders’ partners and children.
Martin Jones, HM inspector of probation, said it could result in more offenders dropping out. He said:
I am very concerned about seeking to name and shame people undertaking unpaid work.
I think it could act as a disincentive to rehabilitation and some may refuse to turn up. If offenders are turning up to do the work I do not see a reason why they should also have their images published, particularly when the evidence shows that reintegration back into communities and employment are key to preventing reoffending.
Ian Lawrence, the general secretary of Napo, the probation officers’ union, said the change would bring shame upon families of offenders, particularly children. He said:
This proposed policy serves no value to the rehabilitation of offenders but could have potentially devastating effects on innocent family members, namely children.
It seems to only serve as a form of humiliation, not just for the offender but those around them. It also could potentially place people on unpaid work at risk, especially if it involves those that commit sexual offending.
It comes as the government plans to rapidly expand “community payback” as an alternative to custodial sentences, as part of a plan to divert offenders away from overcrowded prisons.
Digital ID will be compulsory for anyone who wants to work in the UK, the culture secretary has said, reports the PA news agency.
“It will be compulsory if you want to work in this country, so you’ll have to show that to be able to prove that you have the right to work,” Lisa Nandy told BBC Breakfast. However, in a speparate interview with Sky News Nandy said that while all UK citizens will have a digital ID under new plans, it will be “entirely their choice” whether they use it (see 8.21am BST).
She said the change would make a “significant dent” in the number of people who are able to work illegally because current documents can be too easily falsified.
A national insurance number “won’t be sufficient” in future to prove employment rights, she said.
The problem with national insurance numbers is that they’re not linked to anything else.
So they’re not linked, for example, to photo ID, so you can’t verify that the person in front of you is actually the person whose national insurance number that you’re looking at, and we’ve seen a real rise in the amount of identity theft and people losing documents and then finding that their identity has been stolen.
She said the government was not putting a “precise figure” on the cost of rolling out the scheme because the consultation would seek to determine how it would work for groups including older people, homeless people and people with disabilities.
Lisa Nandy insists digital ID 'will not be mandatory for people to use'
All UK citizens will have a digital ID under new plans, but it will be “entirely their choice” whether they use it, culture secretary Lisa Nandy told Sky News:
The plan is to ensure that everybody has it, but you can choose whether you use it.
She referred to debates over identity cards that go back to when Tony Blair was prime minister between 1997 and 2007. Nandy said:
We’ve debated it ever since. It’s important, of course, that we protect people’s civil liberties, and we have got no intention of pursuing a dystopian mess. But I do think for most people, this is a fairly common sense and practical measure.
And like I said, although all UK citizens will have a digital ID, it will not be mandatory for people to use it. It will be entirely their choice.
Introducing digital IDs will not change what penalties companies face for failing to check their employees’ right to work, a cabinet minister has said.
Culture secretary Lisa Nandy told Times Radio:
Companies already are meant to check on whether people have the right to work in the UK and face penalties for that … they will continue to face those penalties.
But she said it would make it easier for businesses to do their checks:
It makes it much easier for companies to be able to do this and to be able to check whether people are able to work legally or not, which means there is no excuse for not doing so.
The cards will be free of charge, she said and funded under existing spending plans.
Robert Booth
It is 21 years since Tony Blair’s government made proposals for an ID card system to tackle illegal working and immigration, and to make it more convenient for the public to access services.
The same issues are on the agenda again as Keir Starmer revives what became one of New Labour’s most controversial policies. He is about to find out if he can defeat the argument that David Cameron’s Conservatives made before scrapping it. They said the ID card approach to personal privacy was “the worst of all worlds – intrusive, ineffective and enormously expensive”.
Blair is an important figure in the latest push, through lobbying carried out by his Tony Blair Institute (TBI).
The idea re-emerges in a different technological world in which smartphones are ubiquitous and much, but far from all, of the population is familiar with negotiating digital credentials.
Starmer appears ready to try again, and ministers believe there will be less public opposition, although digital ID cards could worsen the effect of digital exclusion.
Age UK has estimated that about 1.7 million people over the age of 74 do not use the internet. TBI’s arguments in favour are that far from reflecting the “papers, please” caricature, digital ID “brings fairness, control and convenience to people’s everyday interactions with each other and with the state”.
It can close loopholes exploited by trafficking gangs, reduce pull factors driving illegal migration to Britain, speed up citizens’ interactions with government, reduce errors and identity fraud and boost trust as a tangible symbol of a more responsive and flexible state.
The arguments against often centre on privacy. Civil liberties campaigners fear any mandatory ID card system, even one intended to tackle illegal migration, would require the population to surrender vast amounts of personal data to be amassed in national databases.
Robert Booth is the Guardian’s UK technology editor. You can read more of his analysis here:
Rowena Mason
The prime minister will set out the measures on Friday at a conference on how progressive politicians can tackle the problems facing the UK, including addressing voter concerns around immigration.
The proposals for a “Brit card” would require legislation and are already facing opposition from privacy groups.
However, No 10 is understood to believe that it is necessary to make sure people have the right to work in the UK to tackle illegal migration, and that the national mood has moved on since Tony Blair’s plans for ID cards were abandoned in the 2000s.
Starmer said this month that digital IDs could “play an important part” in making Britain less attractive to illegal migrants, and France has repeatedly claimed that the lack of official cards acts as a “pull factor”.
The prime minister has also spoken about the government’s goal of “patriotic renewal”, comparing it to “the politics of grievance, of toxic divide, which is what Reform are all about”. He dismissed the Conservative party as “basically dead”.
During his speech on Friday, he will set out his view that the far right is injecting a “poisonous” discourse into national life, saying:
At its heart – its most poisonous belief – on full display at the protests here in London, just a week or two ago, that there is a coming struggle, a defining struggle, a violent struggle for the nation. For all our nations.
Now – you don’t need to be a historian to know where that kind of poison can lead. You can just feel it. A language that is naked in its attempt to intimidate.
But he will also explain his belief that immigration and borders need to be controlled, saying:
For too many years it’s been too easy for people to come here, slip into the shadow economy and remain here illegally.
Starmer will add:
It is not compassionate leftwing politics to rely on labour that exploits foreign workers and undercuts fair wages. But the simple fact that every nation needs to have control over its borders.
What do the digital ID cards entail?
Starmer’s plans envisage ID cards being stored on devices in the same way contactless payment cards or the NHS app are.
The digital ID would be the authoritative proof of identity and residency status in the UK and include name, date of birth, and a photo as well as information on nationality and residency status, reports the PA news agency.
How the scheme will work for those who do not use smartphones will be addressed as part of the consultation process.
Those who do not want to carry a digital ID card or do not operate digitally could be given a physical card instead, according to The Telegraph.
Mandatory ID cards have previously only existed during wartime.
Starmer says digital ID cards an 'enormous opportunity' for UK and will make working illegally tougher
Keir Starmer says plans for a new digital ID held on people’s phones will be an “enormous opportunity” for the UK and make working illegally tougher.
Digital ID will become mandatory as a means of proving the right to work under the plans, but people will not be required to carry or asked to produce it. It will be available to UK citizens and legal residents by the end of this parliament, reports the PA news agency.
Starmer said:
I know working people are worried about the level of illegal migration into this country. A secure border and controlled migration are reasonable demands, and this government is listening and delivering.
Digital ID is an enormous opportunity for the UK. It will make it tougher to work illegally in this country, making our borders more secure.
And it will also offer ordinary citizens countless benefits, like being able to prove your identity to access key services swiftly – rather than hunting around for an old utility bill.
Starmer admitted Labour has previously shied away from addressing concerns over immigration said it is now “essential” to tackle “every aspect of the problem of illegal immigration” in an article for The Telegraph.
The prime minister argued that it is possible to be concerned about immigration while rejecting Reform UK’s “toxic” approach. “There is no doubt that for years left-wing parties, including my own, did shy away from people’s concerns around illegal immigration,” he wrote.
Reform UK called the plans a “cynical ploy” designed to “fool” voters into thinking something is being done about immigration. Tory leader Kemi Badenoch also dismissed the plans as a “gimmick that will do nothing to stop the boats”.
The Liberal Democrats said they would not support mandatory digital ID where people are “forced to turn over their private data just to go about their daily lives”.
Meanwhile, Tony Blair’s thinktank said the cards, which will be mandatory by the end of this parliament, could act as a “gateway to government services”.
More on this story in a moment, but first here are some other developments:
-
Ministers are pushing through powers to photograph, name and shame offenders who have been ordered to complete unpaid community work in England and Wales. The sentencing bill, now moving through parliament, will for the first time give probation officers “a legal power” to take and publish the names and pictures of individuals ordered by courts to tidy grass verges, litter-pick or scrub graffiti.
-
Leading climate figures and Labour MPs have urged Keir Starmer to attend the crucial Cop30 climate summit this November, after aides advised him not to attend for fear of attracting the ire of the Reform party. Simon Stiell, the UN’s climate chief, said: “Cop30 is where leaders are expected to come and roll up their sleeves, make deals to help their nation’s economy transition faster, creating more jobs, and guide the world on what next steps we take together.”
-
Britain will violate its nuclear disarmament obligations if Labour presses ahead with the £1bn purchase of 12 F-35A fighter jets, according to a specialist legal opinion prepared on behalf of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND). Two international lawyers argue that the government’s plan to reintroduce air-launched nuclear weapons for the RAF will break a key provision of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT) signed by the UK and 190 other countries.
-
Hopes that international rail services could return to UK stations abandoned by Eurostar have grown, with the government backing new competitors who plan to serve stops in Kent. Ministers have been leaning on the rail regulator to give crucial space on the railway to prospective entrants who pledge to bring cross-Channel services back to Ashford and Ebbsfleet stations – and possibly London’s Stratford International.
