Labour cannot resist “its big, fat socialist dreams” that will radically reshape the state’s relationship with ordinary people, critics blasted.
Plans for digital ID cards will “fundamentally shift the balance of power between citizen and state”, the shadow science, innovation and technology secretary, Julia Lopez, claimed.
Labour’s Science, Innovation and Technology Secretary, Liz Kendall, claimed in a Parliamentary debate that the controversial scheme will “offer greater security and actually greater control over your own data”.
It confirms the mission creep of the scheme, which had been initially proposed as a method of combating illegal working. But is now being widened to include other Government services.
Ms Kendall said data was “much less likely to be lost or stolen” and continued: “Privacy and security will be hardwired into the system from the start.”
Ms Kendall said a customer might be “able to prove you’re over 18 without even showing your exact birthday”.
She also said the new digital ID would “deliver greater fairness by showing exactly who has the right to work here in the UK”.
But Ms Lopez told the Commons: “He didn’t announce it here in this House but at a love-in of the progressive left, sponsored by Labour Together, and haunted by the ghost of Tony Blair.
“The justification was his own catastrophic failure on migration. He knows it won’t stop the boats, and when Brits are forced to have ID as illegal migration continues unabated, it will simply confirm fears of a two-tier society, fuelling the division and conspiracy theories that he so arrogantly claims that he is the antidote to.”
Ms Lopez later added: “This crafty scheme was not in Labour’s manifesto. Even the Cabinet think this whole thing is a fantasy.”
She told MPs: “This is not about luddite versus modernisers. This is about the fact that Labour cannot resist its big fat socialist dreams – centralised databases, state mandation, big money, the exclusion of private-sector expertise. Why create this honeypot for hackers?”
Responding, Science, Innovation and Technology Secretary Liz Kendall said: “Well, that is definitely the first time I’ve been called a ‘big fat socialist’.”
Ms Kendall had earlier announced plans for a consultation on the Government’s plans “by the end of this year”.
Defending the controversial scheme, the minister claimed Government systems which are not joined up leave people “feeling like they’re a number on a list, not a human being with a life”, as she made a fresh pitch for digital ID.
She continued: “I’m sure many honourable members will know this is a frustratingly similar story – they’re passed from one person to another, asked to repeat their story and provide basic information time and time again. That they’re made to fit into a system, rather than the system working for them, which ultimately leaves them feeling like they’re a number on a list, not a human being with a life.”
Ms Kendall described a new system as a “digital key that unlocks better, more joined-up and effective public services”.
She added that the Government intended to “learn from” other countries such as Denmark, Finland and Estonia.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer insisted digital ID cards were needed to prevent migrants from working in the UK’s booming black economy.
But critics and privacy campaigners fear it could be expanded to cover a wider range of Government services.