MPs Across Labour Urge Ministers To Back Digital ID In Fight Against Farage

Keir Starmer and Home Secretary Yvette Cooper on a visit to the NCA headquarters, September 2024 (Credit: Benjamin Cremel/Pool via AP)

A new working group of centrist Labour MPs, mostly from the 2024 intake, has formed. Organised by ‘Red Wall’ Rother Valley MP Jake Richards, it is expected to lobby Keir Starmer to put digital ID at the heart of the government’s agenda.

Members of the group, which is in its infancy and has held one meeting at the time of writing, believe digital ID could be used as a way of supporting public services, cutting spending, reducing welfare fraud, improving law enforcement and controlling borders.

Supporters of a digital ID scheme have also argued that it could move the welfare state towards a contributory model such as in Denmark, where people can see that what they take out of the system is linked to what they put in.

A new digital ID system is not currently government policy. "We haven't got plans for that," the Prime Minister's official spokesperson said on Monday. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper is understood to be sceptical of the plan and its ability to tackle people working illegally in the black market. Technology Secretary Peter Kyle is thought to favour the idea. Starmer's own views are not known.

Lord Blunkett, who tried to introduce a national, compulsory ID card scheme as home secretary under Tony Blair, told PoliticsHome that “briefings” suggest the current government is “working towards forms of digital ID”.

“But we have the Home Secretary saying, ‘I’m not having it – I'm not having an overall system.’ So we have a fragmented, incremental approach to what I think will be the inevitable,” he added.

“That [incremental approach] is very welcome, but it doesn't add up to a narrative. It would be very good for the government if they had a clear narrative that they want people to be able to protect their own identity; they want proper, secure verification; they want to be able to regulate it properly; and they want to join it up so that it can be used positively.”

If the Prime Minister decides that this is a good idea, it will happen

The Labour peer continued: “If the Prime Minister decides that this is a good idea, it will happen. If he's convinced that joining up these fractured, fragmented systems is not only logical, rational and beneficial to the public but also a major political win, then they'll go ahead with it.”

Pressure on the government to adopt such a project is now coming from not only the centrist and Blairite side of the Labour Party but also the Blue Labour tradition, with Dan Carden –chair of the Blue Labour group of MPs – backing the policy.

Advocates say the policy is popular with voters, especially in ‘Red Wall’ constituencies. A More in Common survey published in December for The Times found that 53 per cent of people were in favour, with 25 per cent strongly in favour, compared to 19 per cent against the policy. The most enthusiastic supporters of digital ID were Conservative and Reform voters, with strong support from 37 per cent and 36 per cent respectively. 

Richards told PoliticsHome that a comprehensive digital ID system for UK citizens should be at “the heart” of the Labour government’s mission of national renewal. 

“It has the potential to transform public services, empower the citizen and bolster security,” the Labour MP said.

“On issues such as welfare fraud, illegal immigration and crime, it can be pivotal to a far more effective state. It is at the heart of the AI revolution that will reform the way our state and citizens interact.”

He added: “Excellent work is already taking place in this area with digital driving licences and patient passports but the government should be making the broader political argument for the necessity of digital ID now, taking the public with them.”

Since the 2024 election, many Labour MPs have expressed disappointment at the lack of vision set out by the government and said No 10 needs to seize control of the political agenda. Supporters of digital ID believe such a scheme could allow the government to do that.

MPs advocating for the policy told PoliticsHome it could be used to fight Reform UK on its own territory – immigration and crime – while differentiating itself from Nigel Farage’s party; start a long-running row that would have most voters on side; and allow the government to show tangible progress over the course of the Parliament. Tories by their admission say it would likely divide the parliamentary Conservative party. 

Carden, the Labour MP for Liverpool Walton and chair of the Blue Labour caucus, said the project could be used to restore public trust between the party’s working-class voter base and public institutions. 

“When you look at the breakdown in public trust with government, the disconnect between here and what's happening outside, a lot of that is people have lost faith and trust in the state to deliver public services, to control immigration,” he said. 

“An ID card that basically determined people's entitlement to public services, to housing, and was used in trying to manage the system of immigration and asylum that we determine we want to use in this country, would be the first step in trying to restore the public's faith in the ability of the state to do this stuff. Because that is what is broken.”

Carden warned that the UK faces the prospect of Farage as prime minister.

“We're potentially heading to a Reform government, and we can imagine what that might look like. Most people in this place [Parliament] and in Labour politics don’t want to get there.

“We're getting there because people have lost faith in government. They've lost faith in the established political parties. And a lot of that is to do with the failure of the state to deliver what it says.”

The MP added: “To not get to this disastrous election result, we need to start restoring that faith, and ID cards are a potential way to do that.”

Blunkett said: “People accept that we've got an elephant in the room in terms of Farage and Reform. Presenting this [as an] additional deterrent for undocumented entry into the country, i.e. undocumented migration – that would be a very positive message.”

I don't believe we can carry on with this quaint British system where we don't even count people in and out of the country

The Tony Blair Institute, a global think tank, has published policy papers on how the technology could be used to transform public services. Its research has suggested the roll-out of digital ID would cost £1bn but the government would recoup the costs in the long term via higher tax revenues and lower spending. 

Alexander Iosad, director of government innovation at the TBI, told PoliticsHome it could help stop the “doom loop” of public services in which people pay higher taxes for worse outcomes.

“Digital ID makes all the systems work together, and therefore work better, and work more efficiently,” he said.

“The UK debate around this issue is unusual when we can see digital ID making tangible, real change in people’s lives outside of the UK. We have seen Australia, Singapore, Estonia, India, and countries in Africa all adopt digital ID successfully, and even Ukraine in the middle of the war has its own digital ID.”

Siobhain McDonagh, Labour MP Mitcham and Morden, who was in the PLP during the Blair and Brown governments, said she believed a new revitalised plan to introduce ID cards could shore up the public’s trust in the Treasury. 

“We live at a time when public expenditure is really squeezed. It's very important every pound of taxpayers’ money goes to the best services possible,” she said. “If you can reduce your bureaucracy and improve access at the same time, it's a no-brainer.” 

While there is enthusiasm for the policy within the PLP, civil liberties campaigners have argued that digital ID would change the individual’s relationship with the state, with people compelled to identify themselves to police and government officials. 

Responding to such concerns, Carden said: “It has changed since the debate that was had 20 years ago. There is a big concern over data and who has control of it. The fact that the state has less control than multinational corporations is an imbalance that probably has to be put right.

“I am someone who is concerned with civil liberties. But I don't believe we can carry on with this quaint British system where we don't even count people in and out of the country.

“If you want to run a socialist welfare state, let's say, you have to have a state that has some power and can manage the system.”

He added: “We've entered a period of globalisation over the past two, three, four decades, and it's weakened the nation-state. That is partly what needs to be put right.”

Also addressing ethical questions, Richards said the roll-out “must take into account concerns about privacy and inherent discrimination” but similarly highlighted that “we already share huge amounts of data with the private sector, and public bodies cannot be impotent in comparison”.

“Digital ID also has the potential to ensure the citizen has more power over what data they share and how it is used,” he added.

New Labour tried to introduce ID cards in the aftermath of 9/11 and the height of the terror threat, but the scheme split Blair’s cabinet and the PLP, and attracted strong opposition from the Lords. 

Since leaving office, Blair has consistently campaigned for the policy. He told The Sunday Times in February that it would allow Labour to indulge in a political fight and force populist parties such as Reform to take a view on how they could control benefit fraud, immigration and crime.

“If I had my time again, even without the 20-year change in technology,” Blunkett told PoliticsHome, “I should have attached it simply to getting everyone to have a passport. That would have taken all the steam out of it, and all you'd have ended up with – which is what it was, in the end – was a much more convenient and handleable passport.”

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