By Caitlin Clifford, University of Liverpool
All opinions are those of their respective author, and are not indicative of the stance of EUPS.
Last month, Sir Keir Starmer announced the introduction of a universal digital ID scheme in the UK. The ID will be stored on an app on one’s phone and will include one’s name, date of birth, residency status, nationality and a photo. Various countries have been cited (those being Australia, Denmark, Estonia and India) as having had success with similar schemes, and many others have non-digital ID cards too.
In the press release, the government acknowledged that various groups may struggle to use this, specifically naming the homeless and the elderly, and said it will be having a public consultation to explore options, stressing the importance of inclusivity, whilst reporting that only 93% of adults possess a smartphone.
A similar proposal was made by Tony Blair in 2006 but was ultimately abandoned in 2011 due to concerns surrounding cost and threats to civil liberties. The government has not revealed how much the current proposal will cost the taxpayer.
The government has also stressed that they will not be mandatory to carry in public, and that their purpose is to cut down bureaucratic inefficiency. It has also been reported that they will not be used to hinder access to healthcare or welfare.
As well as reducing inefficiency, a key motivation is to make it harder for illegal working, which the government argues is a key pull factor for small boat crossings. However, whilst the proposed system will indeed make the right to work checks more rigorous, employers determined not to comply with regulations will likely continue to go under the radar.
As of July, there had been over 25,000 small boat crossings in 2025. In contrast, there were fewer than 8,500 in 2020 and below 2,000 in 2019. Of these, the UN recorded 82 deaths in the Channel last year, with at least 14 being children.
It is worth contextualising these numbers by noting that small boat crossings make up a small percentage of total migration to the UK, with official statistics registering 43,000 small boat arrivals as of June 2025, whilst there were 33,000 safe and legal (humanitarian) route arrivals, 286,000 work visas granted, and 436,000 study visas granted.
The topic of immigration has become particularly contentious at the moment, with rioting over the last two summers, and Reform UK making significant gains in the polls whilst promising to end indefinite leave to remain for migrants.
Despite 57% of the population now supporting a national ID card scheme, the UK has historically been opposed to ID cards, only having them during the world wars. There has unsurprisingly been plenty of criticism, including from Reform itself, with Nigel Farage arguing that he does not think it will have any real impact, whilst also voicing his concerns over government data privacy.
The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats have also opposed the proposal, in addition to Sinn Féin and the Alliance Party, with Northern Ireland First Minister Michelle O’Neill describing it as ‘an attack on the Good Friday Agreement.’
Moreover, at the time of writing, a petition against the introduction of the digital IDs had received over 2.8 million signatures, securing hundreds more each hour.
Civil liberties groups, including Big Brother Watch, have also written to the government, fearful of data privacy issues and warning that the scheme will ‘push unauthorised migrants further into the shadows.’
This marks a heightened level of government surveillance, with facial recognition software already being controversially used at the Notting Hill Carnival, which reportedly saw a significant reduction in violence this year.
But for now, only time will tell whether Starmer will deliver the digital IDs or whether this will all just become another one of the controversial U-turns he’s become known for.
