Why Keir Starmer's ID card plan could be Labour's 'Rwanda' moment
Keir Starmer’s national ID card scheme may prove to be costly, disruptive and a political mistake
Mandatory ID cards have only ever been introduced during wartime in the UK, so Keir Starmer’s announcement that a digital version soon will be required – for anyone who wants to work in this country – may strike some as over the top.
However, given the Prime Minister’s explanation that the move is necessary to tackle illegal immigration, he may relish the suggestion that his government has, metaphorically, declared war over the issue.
Opposition politicians were predictably unimpressed by the “gimmick” – a word once used by Labour to describe the Conservatives’ ill-fated and costly scheme to send asylum seekers to Rwanda.
Fears over identity theft
Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey said the plan would only add to “our tax bills and bureaucracy, whilst doing next to nothing to tackle Channel crossings”, adding: “Imagine if the government devoted this much money and focus on getting GP waiting times down, or fixing social care, instead of pursuing the Labour party's decades-long obsession with ID cards and more state control.”
There are also fears about the card’s security. Identity theft is a growing problem, and if criminal hackers manage to obtain or alter people’s ID, proving you are who you say you are may become difficult.
That said, systems already exist to ensure workers are entitled to be in this country, so some of the human rights objections may be overstated – assuming, of course, that the UK’s future does not include an authoritarian government prepared to misuse the power that ID cards could convey, for example, by preventing a dissident from earning a living.
Computer glitches
On a more mundane note, big government IT projects generally inspire little confidence. If computer glitches stop people from joining the workforce, there will be hell to pay. Also, people in this country illegally who work in the shadow economy are usually paid in cash on the quiet, without troubling the authorities.
For these reasons, we remain unconvinced that ID cards are actually necessary and fear it may prove to be yet another attempt to sound tough on immigration that will backfire on the government when the figures remain stubbornly too high for those convinced that this is the UK’s biggest issue.
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