Every Adult In The UK Will Soon Be Required To Have A Digital ‘Brit-Card’ ID

Prime Minister Keir Starmer is set to announce today that all working adults in the UK will be required to have a government-issued digital ID card.

The idea (so they say) is that this will help tackle illegal immigration into the country and make it easier to identify if a person can live and work in the UK – whether a citizen or staying on a visa. Any other reason why the government would want your name and details tied to a digital ID?

The ‘Brit-card’ would be shown when starting a new job, and checked in a database of people entitled to work in the UK.

Home secretary Shabana Mahmood is a big fan of the initiative: ‘I think that a system of digital ID can also help with illegal working and the enforcement of other laws as well. I do think that has a role to play in dealing with our migration.

‘My long-term personal political view has always been in favour of ID cards.’

Here’s a mock-up of what the Brit-card is expected to look like:

Can you opt out of the Brit-card? Nope – the plan is for it to be a mandatory for every working adult living in the UK. No Brit-card? No work opportunities and not permitted to rent. Well, at least not legally anyway.

Your driving license will also be stored on the app, and the idea is that you will later be able to order a new passport, access NHS service, and so on. It’ll probably be tied to everything, before too long. You’ll have to show it to buy a plane/train ticket, go somewhere, get stopped by the police etc.

It’s not the first time a Labour government has attempted to introduce compulsory ID cards in the UK. Tony Blair pushed for it in 2006 following the September 11 and 7/7 bombings, but it was later scrapped.

It was estimated it would cost £400million to build the e-ID system and £10million to run the free-to-use phone app. Aren’t our passports and driving licenses good enough?

Naturally, a whole bunch of petitions are already on the go to block the Brit-card from becoming a reality. The main one is already nearing half a million signatures at time of writing.

Privacy groups have been rallying against the idea for decades, with Akiko Hart, the director of the human rights charity Liberty, revealing that digital ID likely won’t assist the government in the way they’re saying it would.

Akiko told Metro: ‘The evidence from countries with established digital ID systems shows it won’t reduce irregular migration. But it will create a host of human rights issues.’

Silkie Carlo, director of the privacy campaign group, Big Brother Watch, added that digital ID amount to ‘mass surveillance’.

‘Incredibly sensitive information about each and every one of us would be hoarded by the state and vulnerable to cyber attacks.’

So yeah, it sounds like a terrible idea no matter which way you look at it. Aside from the mass surveillance aspect and opening ourselves up to cyber attacks, it won’t even address the issues that they claim they are trying to address. People will find a way around digital IDs just like they find a way around everything. It won’t stop people working, renting or claiming benefits illegally in the UK, and as evidenced in other countries, won’t stop illegal migration either.

Then again, if a cashless society is hot on the heels of digital ID, then maybe this 1984-style dystopia they envisage for us could be ‘effective’ yet.

Remains to be seen whether the backlash against the Brit-card will be enough to shut down the idea for another few years. Just when you thought Keir Starmer couldn’t get any less popular, eh? Then again, I doubt it was his idea.