Digital ID ‘must not be mandatory’ and rollout a ‘farce’ – Labour MPs

Digital IDs “must not be mandatory” and their rollout has been a “farce”, Labour MPs have warned.

Cabinet Office minister Josh Simons faced questions about the scheme from his own party’s backbenchers, amid fears of a U-turn on mandatory credentials.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer announced the policy last September, saying at a London conference: “You will not be able to work in the United Kingdom if you do not have digital ID.”

Mr Simons told the Commons on Thursday that digital ID would not be “a conditional basis” for accessing Government services, but added right to work checks “will be digital and they will be mandatory” by the 2030s.

He said digital ID would “transform the state and make it work better for ordinary working people”.

Mr Simons continued: “We will issue the new digital ID to everyone who wants one and has the right to be in the UK, including the around 10% of UK citizens without traditional forms of ID.”

The minister, who also works in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, said the electronic credential would “reduce fraud” and save the taxpayer “hassle and money”.

Mr Simons also said: “Currently, employers can carry out checks of over a dozen different forms of ID, and for British and Irish citizens, many of these checks are currently paper-based.

“This is confusing, vulnerable to fraud, and it doesn’t always create a clear record of when and where checks have been carried out.

“As the Prime Minister clearly said yesterday, there will be checks, they will be digital and they will be mandatory.”

Labour former minister Dame Meg Hillier said for digital ID to “work”, it “must not be mandatory, it must not be a requirement to access a public service”.

She added: “For those who choose not to or are not able to have one – including some of the 10% that he mentioned – there need to be really clear and established workarounds.”

Fundamental freedoms

Mr Simons said digital ID will be free and “will not be a conditional basis for access to public services”.

Emma Lewell, the Labour MP for South Shields, branded the proposals a “mess”, which was met with cheers from the opposition benches.

“In the context of increasing surveillance, DWP (Department for Work and Pensions) powers to snoop on bank accounts, removal of trials by jury, postponing elections, and clamping down on peaceful protest, the public are starting to become very angry about these encroachments on our fundamental freedoms and creeping state control,” she said.

“It is all inherently un-British.

“Now, I know this isn’t (Mr Simons’s) fault, but can he please convey for me to whoever is behind this farce that they are doing this Government no favours at all, and it is time to scrap this costly project altogether.”

The minister said: “If it is not trusted, it doesn’t work, and that will be at the heart of the consultation that we will publish in a few weeks.”

Control

Mr Simons insisted the system would “give citizens more control” and be “decentralised with strong firewalls”.

Jim McMahon, another Labour former minister, said Sir Keir “promised two things” when he moved into No 10.

“The first one was to tread lightly on people’s lives and the second one was to be a Government of service,” he continued.

“On a range of issues, whether it’s checking bank accounts, seeing what people are selling on eBay or Etsy or a range of other things, the Government is appearing that is intruding on people’s everyday lives in a way that is overbearing.

“So, can I just ask for this to be a moment where we go back to the Prime Minister’s founding principles when we came to Government and make sure that cuts across all Government policy?”

Mr Simons said it was “vital” that people trusted any digital product.

‘Dead parrot’ 

Mike Wood, a Conservative shadow Cabinet Office minister, earlier labelled the policy a “zombie boondoggle”.

He asked: “Is it going to be mandatory or not?”

Mr Wood said the policy was now a “dead parrot”, referring to the Monty Python’s Flying Circus sketch starring John Cleese and Sir Michael Palin.

“The minister is asking us all to deny what we can see clearly with our own eyes,” he said.

“He does everything short of inviting us to admire its beautiful plumage.”

But the policy had “passed on”, Mr Wood told MPs.

Mr Simons replied: “Digital IDs will be rolled out free to everyone who wants one.

“If anyone does not want one, they do not have to have one.

“People will be able to use that credential to prove their right to work digitally by the end of this Parliament, which will make it easier for businesses to check right to work and enable tougher enforcement against illegal working.”