Ex-home secretaries call for ID cards rethink in wake of Windrush scandal
2 min read
Ministers should put national identity cards “back on the agenda” in the wake of the Windrush scandal, two former home secretaries have said.
Labour grandees Charles Clarke and Alan Johnson argued Commonwealth migrants would not have been wrongly caught up in an illegal immigration crackdown if the cards had been brought in.
Their call came as Amber Rudd resigned as home secretary over the scandal - which has seen British citizens who came to the country between the 1940s and 1970s stripped of their rights.
Many have faced threats of deportation and lost access to work, housing and healthcare - all because their right to stay was not documented.
Theresa May abandoned the Labour plan to introduce ID cards when she first came in as home secretary in 2010.
But in a letter to the Times the former Cabinet ministers urge her to reconsider to avoid another scandal over EU citizens granted the right to stay after Brexit.
“Theresa May’s ideological and unwise decision to ditch the Labour government’s scheme immediately she took office as home secretary has left her and her beleaguered successor with no idea how to tackle the most pernicious form of immigration: illegal entry, usually organised by people traffickers,” they wrote.
“The problem will become worse when we ‘take back control’ and lose the institutional cooperation of our European neighbours that has done so much to block cross-border crime.
“Biometric cards remain the best way to prove and so protect a citizen’s identity, which is why most major European countries have them.”
They added: “It’s time to put identity cards back on the political agenda and give everyone confidence that those using our services are fully entitled to do so.”
They added that ID cards would simplify the job of identifying illegal immigrants - a mission Mrs May has vowed to continue.
More than 200 MPs signed a letter yesterday demanding promises of compensation over the Windrush scandal are stamped into law.
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