United Kingdom: Keir Starmer to create a digital ID to fight illegal immigration

Keir Starmer's Labour government announced Friday its intention to create a digital identity card for citizens and residents of the United Kingdom, with the alleged aim of combating illegal labor and immigration.

This document, without physical form, will be stored in cell phones and will be mandatory from 2029 to prove the right to work in the country, the government specified.

Keir Starmer defended that this will make it "more difficult to work illegally in the country," and "offer numerous advantages to citizens, such as the ability to prove their identity to quickly access essential services."

"I'll put it bluntly: if you don't have digital ID, you won't be able to work in the U.K.," Starmer said Friday. "The decent and pragmatic people want us to tackle the problems they see around them," he stressed.

"This measure will prevent those who lack the right to be here from finding work, and it will curb their prospects of earning money, which is one of the factors that attracts people to come to the UK illegally," he added.

According to Labour, the plan will help "combat the criminal networks that promise access to the British labor market."

Conservatives against digital ID

The leader of the Conservative opposition, Kemi Badenoch, assured this same Friday on X: "Conservatives will oppose any push by this organisation or the government to impose mandatory ID cards on law abiding citizens."

For his part, Nigel Farage, leader of the Reform UK party, wrote on X: "It will make no difference to illegal immigration, but it will be used to control and penalise the rest of us. The state should never have this much power."

Likewise, during an interview for GB News, Farage warned against digital IDs, reflecting on the COVID-19 that created a "two-class society," and stated that he is "strongly against" them.

British newspaper The Spectator expressed concern as to Labour's ability to manage a technological project of such magnitude and believes that any identification system must be hacker-proof, bug-free and easy to upgrade, without bankrupting the taxpayer.

Data privacy concerns

Some 57% of Britons support instituting a physical ID, according to a July poll by the Ipsos institute. But that support drops to 38% for the digital ID, over fears about data security.

According to the British Parliament's official website, more than one million people have already signed petitioning against the imposition of the digital ID.