British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s plan to require digital identification cards for work authorization in the United Kingdom has been met with widespread backlash by both right-wing and left-wing leaders in the country.
Last Friday, Starmer announced that the government of the United Kingdom would be implementing mandatory digital identification cards to address the problem of illegal immigrants slipping into the “shadow economy.” Starmer emphasized that the country’s immigration system “needs to be fair.”
“And that is why, today, I am announcing this government will make a new free-of-charge digital ID mandatory for the right to work by the end of this Parliament,” Starmer said on Friday. “Let me spell that out: you will not be able to work in the United Kingdom if you do not have digital ID. It’s as simple as that.”
Following the prime minister’s announcement, Jeremy Corbyn, who formerly served as the leader of the left-wing Labour Party prior to becoming an independent member of Parliament in 2024, released a statement saying, “I firmly oppose the government’s plans for compulsory digital ID cards. This is an affront to our civil liberties, and will make the lives of minorities even more difficult and dangerous. It is excessive state interference — and must be resisted.”
Representing the other side of the political aisle, Nigel Farage, a member of Parliament and the leader of the right-wing Reform U.K. Party, also announced his opposition to Starmer’s digital identification card plan.
“It will make no difference to illegal immigration, but it will be used to control and penalise the rest of us,” Farage warned. “The state should never have this much power.”
READ MORE: Video: Digital ID to be required for work in United Kingdom
In a video message shared on social media, Farage noted that digital identification cards are already used in Germany and that the digital identification system has “made no difference at all in Germany.”
“All that digital ID will be is a means of controlling the population, of telling us what we can and can’t do, of fining the innocent,” the Reform U.K. leader said.
Farage also warned that massive government data banks storing digital identification could be hacked by criminals, companies, and foreign governments.
“I do not see a single benefit to the government having digital ID other than them controlling what we do, what we spend, and where we go,” Farage stated.
In addition to backlash from political leaders in the United Kingdom, Starmer’s plan for digital identification has been met with resistance from a large number of citizens. A petition demanding that the government of the United Kingdom immediately decide against the implementation of digital identification cards currently has over 2.7 million signatures.
