\n<\/p>\n
Digital ID cards present \u201can enormous opportunity\u201d for the UK, Keir Starmer has said, as the government braces for a civil liberties row over the proposals.<\/p>\n
The prime minister will set out the measures on Friday morning at a conference on how progressive politicians can tackle the problems facing the UK, including addressing voter concerns around immigration.<\/p>\n
The proposals for a \u201cBrit card\u201d would require legislation and are already facing opposition from civil liberty groups concerned about privacy.<\/p>\n
Addressing those concerns, the culture secretary, Lisa Nandy, said the government had \u201cno intention of pursuing a dystopian mess\u201d.<\/p>\n
Speaking on Friday, Starmer said: \u201cI 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cDigital ID is an enormous opportunity for the UK. It will make it tougher to work illegally in this country, making our borders more secure.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd it will also offer ordinary citizens countless benefits, like being able to prove your identity to access key services swiftly \u2013 rather than hunting around for an old utility bill.\u201d<\/p>\n
The prime minister, writing in the Telegraph, said Labour had shied away previously from addressing concerns over immigration and that it was now \u201cessential\u201d to tackle \u201cevery aspect of the problem of illegal immigration\u201d.<\/p>\n
He argued that it was possible to be concerned about immigration while rejecting Reform UK\u2019s \u201ctoxic\u201d approach.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no doubt that for years leftwing parties, including my own, did shy away from people\u2019s concerns around illegal immigration,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
Civil liberties groups reacted with concern over the proposals. Silkie Carlo, the director of Big Brother Watch, said digital IDs would turn the UK into a \u201ccheckpoint society that is wholly unBritish\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cDigital IDs would do absolutely nothing to deter small boats but would make Britain less free, creating a domestic mass surveillance infrastructure that will likely sprawl from citizenship to benefits, tax, health, possibly even internet data and more,\u201d Carlo said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIncredibly sensitive information about each and every one of us would be hoarded by the state and vulnerable to cyber-attacks.<\/p>\n
\u201cStarmer has no mandate to force the population to carry digital IDs and millions of us will simply not do it. The cost to the public purse will likely run into the billions, much like Blair\u2019s failed scheme, but the cost to our freedoms would be even more serious. He is making an enormous mistake and should drop the plans sooner rather than later.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.<\/span><\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Nigel Farage\u2019s Reform UK called the plans a \u201ccynical ploy\u201d designed to \u201cfool\u201d voters into thinking something is being done about immigration, while the Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch, dismissed the plans as a \u201cgimmick that will do nothing to stop the boats\u201d.<\/p>\n The Guardian revealed in June that Downing Street was exploring proposals for a digital ID card to crack down on illegal migration, rogue landlords and exploitative work.<\/p>\n The idea came from a Labour Together paper given to the No 10 policy unit proposing a Brit Card, which it claimed could help avoid another Windrush scandal.<\/p>\n The thinktank also said it would help reduce vast numbers of visa overstayers, saying half of those whose asylum claims were turned down over the past 14 years were probably still in the UK.<\/p>\n It proposed a free, secure digital ID, stored on a person\u2019s smartphone using a planned gov.uk Wallet app, rebranded as the Brit Card app. That could then be verified by employers, immigration, banks and landlords using free software.<\/p>\n Under the possible plans, the technology is expected to be built on the government\u2019s existing \u201cOne Login\u201d infrastructure, which allows citizens to access about 50 government services, from applying for a job as a teacher to using a lasting power of attorney.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Digital ID cards present \u201can enormous opportunity\u201d for the UK, Keir Starmer has said, as the government braces for a civil liberties row over the proposals. The prime minister will set out the measures on Friday morning at a conference on how progressive politicians can tackle the problems facing the UK, including addressing voter concerns<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23947,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[7637,1136,14573,1346,4258,1347],"class_list":{"0":"post-23946","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-crime-justice","8":"tag-cards","9":"tag-digital","10":"tag-enormous","11":"tag-keir","12":"tag-opportunity","13":"tag-starmer"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23946\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}