News / Carmichael criticises plans for compulsory digital IDs in UK
ALISTAIR Carmichael has condemned news that prime minister Sir Keir Starmer is set to announce plans for a compulsory UK-wide digital ID scheme today (Friday).
In a press release, the UK Government said the scheme would “help combat illegal working while making it easier for the vast majority of people to use vital government services”.
The scheme would be mandatory for adults in the UK, with all UK citizens and legal residents having to comply.
The UK Government said the scheme would save time by “ending the need for complicated identity checks which often rely on copies of paper records.”
But Northern Isles MP Carmichael strongly criticised the plans, saying he would be “working with colleagues to resist it”.
“Nigel Farage is already talking this week about revoking the settled rights of people who have lived here legally for years and in some cases decades,” he said.
“Imagine a Farage-led Reform government with the ability to examine and control the movement, the identities and the rights of citizens and legal residents of our country.
“The Afghan data leak just months ago shows the risks in trusting our government too far with our identities.”
Carmichael said the scheme did not feature in Labour’s election manifesto last year, and that a previous attempt by then-prime minister Tony Blair to introduce digital IDs was blocked.
“We have a long-standing principle that people have a basic right to live their lives free of interference, as long as we are not doing harm to anyone else,” the Liberal Democrat MP said.
“That basic right would be turned on its head by mandatory ID cards. Participating in our society and our public services would become not a right but a privilege, bestowed on us by the state – just so long as we do as we are told.
“To concede that our freedoms are a privilege given by the government, rather than ours by default, would be to rewrite entirely the relationship between the citizen and the state.”
Starmer believes the scheme could help tackle illegal working, saying that digital ID is an “enormous opportunity” to “make our borders more secure”.
However some critics have accused the government of trespassing on people’s privacy and saying the scheme would be ineffective against illegal migration.
The digital ID would include people’s name, date of birth, nationality or residency status and a photo.
It is thought the ID would be on people’s phones, similar to contactless cards, and people would only be asked to produce it when proving a right to work in the UK.
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