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Lord David Blunkett said compulsory ID cards should be introduced to prevent small boat crossings in the English Channel.
The Labor member called on Sir Keir Starmer to introduce the policy if he wins the next general election in a bid to reduce illegal immigration and reduce the tragedy caused by people smugglers.
He suggested that all workers should present their ID cards to employers before being allowed to work.
As home secretary under Tony Blair, Blunkett proposed the idea of mandatory identity documents in 2001 after the September 11 terrorist attacks. He suggested that, in light of the Tory government’s Rwanda plan, smugglers would encourage those crossing the Channel not to seek asylum.
“They’ll say, ‘We’ll take you to England, then we’ll call this number, we’ll find you a job and accommodation,’ and then they’ll disappear into the sub-economy,” he told the Times.
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While Labor has discussed the possibility of identity cards in recent years, shadow immigration minister Stephen Kinnock told Times Radio in November 2022 that such a plan was being examined “very, very carefully indeed”. He said this would reassure the public that “we are in control of our borders.”
Blair’s Labor government introduced legislation for national identity cards in 2006, arguing that national identity registration, together with advances in biometric technology, iris and fingerprint scanning, would be an opportunity to protect people’s identities from fraud and prevent illegal immigration and terrorism.
Saying that this was a matter of “modernity” rather than civil liberties, he argued that many people already give their personal data to private companies on a daily basis.
Legislation on compulsory ID cards was passed in 2006, but in 2009 it was announced that they would not be mandatory for UK citizens. The legislation was repealed by the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition in 2010, with then deputy prime minister Nick Clegg saying: “The wasteful, bureaucratic and intrusive ID card system represents everything the government has done wrong in recent years.”
Civil rights groups have long been wary of the potential of national identity programs. Responding to proposals for “digital identity cards” in 2020, campaign group Liberty warned against “massive centralized databases” that would record “all our interactions with the state”.
“This personal data can then be accessed by a range of government agencies and even private companies, potentially in conjunction with other surveillance technologies such as facial recognition,” the group added.
Digital tracking systems undermine our privacy and freedom of expression by encouraging a culture of control. People in the UK have consistently rejected the idea of an ID card; Bringing back these cards through a digital ID for immigrants is a dangerous step backwards https://t.co/g328KM7LGO
— Freedom (@libertyhq) 22 July 2019
Liberty said it would be “more intrusive, unsafe and discriminatory” than Labour’s old plan; The group said it cost the public £4.6bn before it was scrapped.
In 2018, Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg told LBC Radio: “If you have ID cards, a police officer can ask you at any time who you are and what you’re doing. That’s not the British way.”
Making his case for national identity cards, Kinnock said it would help the UK keep track of how many people are in the country at any given time. Speaking to Times Radio, Trump said that it was “extraordinary” that this number had risen to five million, when it was thought that there were three million EU citizens in the UK before Brexit.
Supporters of ID cards argue that if they were required for any employment, it would prevent illegal immigrants from disappearing into the underground economy. French authorities blame the lack of Britain’s identification system for the number of people crossing the Channel from Calais.
But when the idea was being discussed in 2006, journalist and author Henry Porter argued: “This will make the lives of illegal immigrants more difficult, but there is little evidence that it will actually deter people smugglers and desperate immigrants.”
Opposing Blair’s proposals, Liberty warned that identity cards would introduce the potential for racial discrimination by the police, given the disproportionate use of stop and search against ethnic minority groups.
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