The government has ruled out the introduction of digital ID cards, after former Labour Prime Minister Sir Tony Blair said they could help control immigration.
Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds initially said the home secretary would “be looking at all sources of advice” on the issue.
However, he later told Times Radio ID cards were not part of the government’s plans.
…
However, asked about the possibility of introducing digital ID cards, Mr Reynolds told Times Radio: “We can rule that out, that’s not something that’s part of our plans.”
Opponents of identity cards have raised concerns about the potential impact on civil liberties and what they see as unnecessary data collection by the state.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The government has ruled out the introduction of digital ID cards, after former Labour Prime Minister Sir Tony Blair said they could help control immigration.
Sir Tony brought in legislation for compulsory identity cards when he was in office but the scheme was scrapped by the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government.
"However, asked about the possibility of introducing digital ID cards, Mr Reynolds told Times Radio: "We can rule that out, that’s not something that’s part of our plans.
"Opponents of identity cards have raised concerns about the potential impact on civil liberties and what they see as unnecessary data collection by the state.
The previous Conservative government had hoped to send people who arrived in the UK illegally to Rwanda to deter small boat crossings.
The last Labour government got as far as issuing the first ID cards to UK citizens and 15,000 were in circulation when the scheme was scrapped by the coalition government in 2011 and the database destroyed.Compulsory ID cards for foreign nationals were issued to about 200,000 people before being rebranded as biometric residence permits.Lord Blunkett, who launched the ID cards plan when he was home secretary, claimed they had already started to make a difference to illegal immigration when they were scrapped.Earlier this year, he told The Daily Mail, external: “The gangs realised it wasn’t worth their while to traffic people into the UK if migrants found they were unable to work or claim benefits without an ID card, and thus would be liable to deportation.”
The original article contains 518 words, the summary contains 251 words. Saved 52%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!