LONDON — Keir Starmer will on Friday unveil plans that require people working in Britain to have government-issued digital identification.
The U.K. prime minister is expected to announce the move as he seeks to show voters he is getting on top of the high number of undocumented migrants arriving in Britain on small boats.
Starmer said earlier this month an identity scheme could play an “important part” in reducing the incentive to enter the U.K. without permission. He will commit to forging ahead and set out details in a speech on Friday, according to three people familiar with the arrangements who were not authorized to speak publicly.
One of the three people suggested the ID scheme would be universal. A fourth person, however, suggested that it was more likely to be targeted at people in work.
A fifth person said it would be mandatory for showing the right to work in the U.K.
Alongside existing systems, such as eVisas, the new scheme would function as an extra layer to stop unscrupulous employers finding loopholes in the system, a sixth person said.
The scheme will initially be consulted on and will likely need legislation, according to The Times.
French President Emmanuel Macron has repeatedly warned that the lack of ID cards in the U.K. acts as a major incentive to migrants, who are able to find work in the black economy.
Think tanks close to Labour have been encouraging the government to embrace digital IDs to address voters’ concerns about illegal migration and to enable public service delivery.
In June, the influential Labour Together think tank called for the government to introduce a “BritCard” that adults could use to prove their right to work and rent property in the U.K. Its lead author, Kirsty Innes, became an adviser to new Technology Secretary Liz Kendall earlier this month.
The Tony Blair Institute has also endorsed the idea, though advocated for a more expansive model that would link together all the information held by the government about an individual under a “federated” model.
However, a coalition of civil rights groups on Wednesday warned the prime minister that a “mandatory digital ID scheme” that collected personal data in “population-wide databases” would have “serious consequences for our fundamental rights and freedoms.”
Joseph Bambridge contributed to this report
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