Recurrent proposals for digital identification have become a predictable part of British political life — but voters are still unsure about the idea.
Nonetheless, groups such as the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change and Labour Together have continued to advocate for the adoption of a mandatory, universal digital ID scheme as a panacea for all manner of societal issues.
The question of digital ID is now firmly back on the table with the prime minister stating last week that he is considering such a proposal. This time, many view the mandatory digital ID being proposed by Sir Keir Starmer KC as a supposed magic-bullet for illegal immigration, and it appears to be gaining backing with alarming speed.
Big Brother Watch, a campaign group, has published a report this week that analyses the proposals for digital ID and outlines their worrying implications for privacy rights and civil liberties. It is doubtful that the mandatory, universal digital ID scheme under consideration would deliver on the stated promises to tackle illegal immigration. Instead, it would place a significant burden on already law-abiding people to prove our right to be here, and fundamentally reverse the population’s relationship with the state.
Digital ID would turn Britain into a checkpoint society and insert the state into our everyday interactions, with far wider implications than the initial stated purposes of such a scheme. Digital ID will not stop small boat crossings, but it will usher in an unprecedented new era of mass surveillance and irreversibly erode our civil liberties.
No one voted for a digital ID scheme, and the government does not have a clear mandate to implement one. It was not in the Labour Party manifesto, there has been no public consultation and Downing Street has not so much as waited for parliament’s views, despite the fact that the home affairs committee has an ongoing inquiry into the matter.
The British people have a long and proud history of rejecting proposals for mandatory ID, whether in physical form or the capture of digital data. The current proposals should be rejected too — and Starmer must find solutions for illegal immigration that do not compromise the privacy rights of the entire population.
– Rebecca Vincent, Big Brother Watch Interim Director