In a major intervention, former Prime Minister Sir Tony Blair suggested ID cards could be used to help secure the country’s borders – but the idea was rejected by Labour
Labour has ruled out the introduction of digital ID cards after Sir Tony Blair said they should be brought in.
In a major intervention, the former Prime Minister suggested they could be used to help secure the country’s borders. “We need a plan to control immigration” and “we should move as the world is moving to digital ID” to help keep track of who is in the country,” he said.
Labour began the rollout of ID cards when it was last in power, but they were scrapped by the Tories and Lib Dems in 2010 after just 15,000 were issued.
Digital ID cards incorporating biometric data would make it harder for undocumented immigrants to rent and work illegally. But opponents have raised concerns about civil liberties.
Business Secretary Jonny Reynolds initially suggested Home Secretary Yvette Cooper would look at “all sources of advice” on the issue in an interview on Sky News this morning. But he later ruled it out explicitly.
He told Times Radio: “I can rule out ID cards for you. That’s not something which is part of our plans. We’ll be tough on crime, we’ll be tough on the causes of crime. If we’re going to hark back to advice from former Prime Ministers, I think that is the right method.”
A source close to Ms Cooper said ID cards were not Labour policy and the position hadn’t changed.
It comes after the Labour former PM made the intervention in the Sunday Times, saying: “We need a plan to control immigration. If we don’t have rules, we get prejudices.
“In office, I believed the best solution was a system of identity so that we know precisely who has a right to be here. “With, again, technology, we should move as the world is moving to digital ID. If not, new border controls will have to be highly effective.”
Labour former Home Secretary Lord Blunkett also floated the idea earlier this year as a way to tackle the small boats crisis. He told The Times in April: “I would reintroduce the idea of ID cards, because what will happen with the Rwanda scheme is [that] organised criminals will tell migrants not to claim asylum.
“They’ll say, ‘We’ll get you across to the UK, then ring this number, we’ll get you a job and accommodation’, and then they’ll disappear into the sub-economy.
“That’s the worst of all worlds and they’ll be exposed to mass exploitation, and then that’ll affect other people by undercutting genuine workers and also involve modern slavery. You can only solve that if you have a proper identity scheme.”
