Labour minister Ian Murray hit back at critics in a spiky exchange in Westminster Hall as SNP MP Pete Wishart led calls for digital ID plans to be scrapped
Ministers have faced a furious backlash over plans to bring in digital ID.
Under plans being weighed up by the Government, identification will be needed to prove a person has the right to work in the UK. But MPs lined up to warn about the dangers of the scheme – claiming hackers would feast on personal data and authorities would be able to monitor a citizen’s every move.
More than 2.9million people have signed a petition calling for the plan to be scrapped. Defending the proposal, Labour frontbencher Ian Murray accused critics of peddling myths about the plans and said it was about “reconnecting citizens with the government”.
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SNP MP Pete Wishart told a Westminster Hall debate that digital ID would be “alien” to the British people. And he warned that the prospect of Nigel Farage getting into government and having access to the wealth of data “scares me half to death”.
Mr Murray hit back: “Digital ID is not mandatory. That’s the wrong thing to say to our constituents.
“It is not compulsory in this country to have a passport, but it’s mandatory if you want to travel on a flight.” And he said of the proposed cards: “You won’t be asked to show it.
“You won’t be asked to produce it. And there’s not a whole host of cases that would be voluntary for us to do that.” He also insisted they will not be called BritCards, which was the name suggested in a report over the summer.
Mr Wishart, who pledged to oppose the plans at every opportunity, told MPs: “Once again we have a government helplessly assuring us that this is a benign, benevolent scheme designed purely to make life easier for the general public.
“Like a Tesco Clubcard, it is about never having to find your utility bills ever again, like it’s nothing more than a boarding pass.
“It’s a sort of ‘don’t you worry your silly little heads about this massive data collection or our newfound ability to monitor your every move, we are the UK government.'”
He continued: “Can you just imagine the sight of Prime Minister Farage with the data of the nation, his fingertips, with all of his authoritarian tendencies? It scares me half to death.”
And Tory former minister Sir David Davis said: “What will happen when the system comes into effect is the entire population’s entire data will be open to malevolent actors for nations, ransomware criminals, malevolent hackers, just their own personal enemies, even political enemies.
“And as a result, this will be worse than the Horizon (Post Office) scandal.” In the summer think-tank Labour Together said the smartphone ID app would make right-to-rent and right-to-work checks quicker and easier.
Labour MPs Jake Richards and Adam Jogee said in June the ID cards would be a “full, country-wide effort” allowing people to prove their right to be here.
Labour Together said in a report that a “mandatory, universal, national identity credential” can help the UK secure its borders. BritCards would be issued free of charge to everyone with the right to live and work in the UK, the group said.
It estimated it would cost between £140million and £400million to set up. Mr Richards and Mr Jogee wrote that digital ID “will help improve the enforcement of our rules dramatically”.
Other countries which have already rolled out digital ID include Estonia, Demark, Spain, Canada, Australia and Japan.
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