Digital ID scheme on the cards in bid to combat UK’s migrant crisis

Government plans to make ID held on phones mandatory to prove the right to work

Migrants board a small boat in Gravelines, northern France, in the hope of reaching Britain, where many gain employment in the black economy. AP

Keir Starmer’s government is planning to introduce a mandatory digital ID scheme to act as a deterrent to migrants crossing the English Channel in small boats.

The digital ID would be held on people’s phones as a means of proving the right to work, but people will not be required to carry or asked to produce it. It will be available to UK citizens and legal residents by the end of this Parliament, the government said.

Ahead of a speech to officially announce the scheme, the Prime Minister said: “I know working people are worried about the level of illegal migration into this country. A secure border and controlled migration are reasonable demands, and this government is listening and delivering.

“Digital ID is an enormous opportunity for the UK. It will make it tougher to work illegally in this country, making our borders more secure.

“And it will also offer ordinary citizens countless benefits, like being able to prove your identity to access key services swiftly – rather than hunting around for an old utility bill.”

Suggestions the scheme would be called Britcard have already riled nationalists in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. However the government said a different name would be used.

Small boats

The government hopes the proposed IDs will support efforts to reduce illegal immigration by curbing the ability of those who come to the UK illegally to earn money.

The UK has faced criticism for the ‘pull factor’ of its black economy, with complaints many migrants who have crossed the Channel find jobs within days working on motor-scooters or e-bikes for delivery companies.

A total of 1,157 people have arrived on small boats in the last week, according to Home Office statistics, with more than 30,000 making the crossing so far this year, which is on track to be a record.

ID cards 'essential'

Mr Starmer admitted Labour has previously shied away from addressing concerns over immigration said it is now “essential” to tackle “every aspect of the problem of illegal immigration”.

Writing in The Telegraph, he argued that it is possible to be concerned about immigration while rejecting the “toxic” approach taken by the populist right-wing party Reform UK.

Relying on migration to plug workforce gaps “is not compassionate left-wing politics”, Mr Starmer will warn, as he meets his counterparts from Australia and Canada at a London conference.

He will use his speech to tout the idea of “difference under the same flag” at the Global Progress Action Summit.

His appearance follows a summer marked by protests near hotels housing asylum seekers and a campaign known as Operation Raise the Colours, with flags attached to lamp posts and signs throughout the UK.

“For too many years, it’s been too easy for people to come here, slip into the shadow economy and remain here illegally,” Mr Starmer is expected to tell attendees.

He will add: “It is not compassionate left-wing politics to rely on labour that exploits foreign workers and undercuts fair wages. But the simple fact is that every nation needs to have control over its borders.”

Plans to introduce a digital ID scheme did not feature in Labour's 2024 election manifesto.

Around 110,000 to 150,000 protesters gathered in London’s Whitehall and the surrounding streets on September 13, according to Metropolitan Police estimates, for a rally called Unite the Kingdom.

What information does the Emirates ID store about you?

01:33

Growing population

Official figures released on Friday showed the UK population was estimated to have grown by more than three-quarters of a million in the year to June 2024.

Most of the increase was due to international migration, with natural change – the difference between births and deaths – accounting for only a small proportion.

Net international migration – the difference between people moving to the country and leaving – accounted for 738,718 of the estimated population increase of 755,254 people, or 98 per cent of the total, the ONS said.

It is the second largest numerical jump since at least 1949, when comparable data begins, behind only the rise of 890,049 that took place in the preceding 12 months from mid-2022 to mid-2023.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that 'digital ID is an enormous opportunity for the UK'. AP

How it works

Plans envisage ID cards being stored on devices in the same way contactless payment cards or the NHS App are.

The digital ID would be the authoritative proof of identity and residency status in the UK and include name, date of birth, and a photo, as well as information on nationality and residency status.

How the scheme will work for those who do not use smartphones will be addressed as part of the consultation process.

Those who do not want to carry a digital ID card or do not operate digitally could be given a physical card instead.

Mandatory ID cards have previously only existed in the UK during wartime.

Blair plan

Former Labour prime minister Tony Blair’s think tank, the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, said the cards, which are set to be mandatory by the end of this parliament, could act as a “gateway to government services”.

Mr Blair made moves to establish a voluntary ID card system during his time in office in the early 2000s and has since repeated his call for their introduction.

This week the Tony Blair institute released polling which suggested 62 per cent of Britons are in favour of introducing digital ID.

It said it showed a strong case for a digital ID “superapp” joining up public services, from tracking applications to reporting missed bin collections or potholes.

Protesters against digital ID at an Australia Unites for Freedom rally in Sydney. Getty Images

Opposition

Reform UK called the plans a “cynical ploy” designed to “fool” voters into thinking something is being done about immigration.

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch also dismissed the plans as a “gimmick that will do nothing to stop the boats”.

The Liberal Democrats said they would not support mandatory digital ID where people are “forced to turn over their private data just to go about their daily lives”.

Northern Ireland First Minister Michelle O’Neill said the proposal was “ludicrous and ill-thought out”.

“This proposal is an attack on the Good Friday Agreement and on the rights of Irish citizens in the North of Ireland,” she said.

The civil liberty group Big Brother Watch also warned against their introduction.

A petition started by the group has reached more than 101,000 signatures.

National Insurance

During Friday’s media round, the Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said the change would make a “significant dent” in the number of people who are able to work illegally because current documents can be too easily falsified.

A national insurance number “won’t be sufficient” in future to prove employment rights, said Ms Nandy.

“The problem with national insurance numbers is that they’re not linked to anything else.

“So they’re not linked, for example, to photo ID, so you can’t verify that the person in front of you is actually the person whose national insurance number that you’re looking at, and we’ve seen a real rise in the amount of identity theft and people losing documents and then finding that their identity has been stolen.”

She added: “It’s important, of course, that we protect people’s civil liberties, and we have got no intention of pursuing a dystopian mess.

“But I do think for most people, this is a fairly common sense and practical measure.”