\n<\/p>\n
Keir Starmer has set out his vision for digital IDs as he fights to win back public support for the scheme.<\/p>\n
The prime minister\u2019s plan for digital IDs was met with criticism when it was announced last month, and was described as a symptom of his \u201creverse Midas touch\u201d.<\/p>\n
Concerns have been raised over civil liberties and cybersecurity, but Starmer insisted that the identification system would never be needed to get into hospital after fears about its potential impact on accessing public services and data protection.<\/p>\n
He told staff at a Barclays branch in Brighton on Thursday that digital ID would \u201creally help\u201d with security for customers after they told him they dealt with victims of scams and fraud every day.<\/p>\n
He said customers at the bank had told him they were \u201creally excited about it\u201d and had relayed \u201ceveryday examples where you can just cut the faff\u201d.<\/p>\n
He also told the BBC: \u201cYou\u2019ll never need ID to get into a hospital or anything like that. And for people who simply don\u2019t want it, well, they don\u2019t need it, apart from the right to work, because we do need to stop people working illegally in our country to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said \u201cit won\u2019t be the case\u201d that digital ID could end up being used for surveillance.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe idea of having ID on your phone is not that far removed from having bank accounts on your phone or any other apps that people have on their phones,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
In a video posted to X, Starmer said the Barclays customers he had spoken to were \u201creally up for it\u201d and \u201cI think once you understand just how much easier it\u2019ll make life, so many more people will be too.\u201d<\/p>\n
More than 2.9 million people have signed a petition against the measures and net support for digital ID cards fell from 35% in the early summer to -14% after Starmer\u2019s announcement in September, according to polling by More in Common.<\/p>\n
The government believes digital IDs could be given to every British citizen and legal resident, so even those without passports or driving licences can open a bank account, get a job or apply for a mortgage, letting people prove who they are digitally instead of sending physical documents or paying for private verification services.<\/p>\n
Peter Hyman, a former adviser to Starmer and Tony Blair, told an event during the Labour party conference in Liverpool that the plans would be \u201cdead in the water\u201d within six months because ministers had failed to make a convincing case for them.<\/p>\n
Hyman said the scheme\u2019s opponents were \u201cmotoring\u201d ahead and that Downing Street should enlist social media influencers to \u201cnail down all the objections\u201d and respond to proliferating conspiracy theories to rescue the policy.<\/p>\n
The Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesperson, Max Wilkinson, said: \u201cKeir Starmer is trying to put lipstick on a very expensive pig. Relaunching this scheme for the second time this month won\u2019t change the fact it is intrusive, expensive and unnecessary.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Keir Starmer has set out his vision for digital IDs as he fights to win back public support for the scheme. The prime minister\u2019s plan for digital IDs was met with criticism when it was announced last month, and was described as a symptom of his \u201creverse Midas touch\u201d. Concerns have been raised over civil<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30137,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[1136,1346,12997,17740,4141,1347,2207],"class_list":{"0":"post-30136","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics","8":"tag-digital","9":"tag-keir","10":"tag-lays","11":"tag-muchcriticised","12":"tag-scheme","13":"tag-starmer","14":"tag-vision"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30136","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=30136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30136\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/30137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}