Much ink has been spilt over the Labour Government’s shelving of the Rwanda deportation plan. This hopelessly impractical and eye wateringly expensive project was to deter the small boat migrants from making the perilous crossing of the Channel, and after much toing and froing between the courts and Parliament, the first deportation flights were scheduled for July 24 last year.
However, the General Election intervened and at his first press conference as Prime Minister Keir Starmer witheringly confirmed that the ‘gimmick’ scheme was ‘dead and buried’. Since then – with some 1,200 migrants making it to English shores in one day alone last week – the numbers of people entering the country illegally have ticked up and up. With each day’s figures, the supporters of the Tory’s Rwanda plan cry: ‘I told you so.’
But the Conservatives have a short memory. It wasn’t that long ago that they – together with their Coalition partners the Lib Dems – scrapped a scheme that had huge potential to deter illegal immigration.
In 2010, 15,000 national ID cards were in use, paving the way for a scheme that would help prevent identity fraud, benefit fraud, terrorism and affirm a person’s entitlement and access to public services. Yet one of the first things the new Tory home secretary Theresa May did was to can the project, citing ‘the substantial erosion’ of civil liberties. How foolish that looks now.
Last Friday, Environment Secretary Steve Reed confirmed that the Government is ‘absolutely’ considering a revival of ID cards to tackle the Channel crisis.
‘We know we need to look at all the actions we can take to stop the levels of illegal migration that we are seeing,’ he said, adding that ID cards have been ‘something that’s been talked about for quite a while’.
He’s not wrong. Last Monday, I once again advocated for its introduction, speaking in the Lords on the Borders and Migration Bill.
The Labour Together think tank has also long proposed a so called ‘BritCard’ that would be stored on mobile phones. It would be shown whenever someone took a new job, which would make it harder for people to work illegally in the UK.
Last Friday, Environment Secretary Steve Reed (pictured) confirmed that the Government is ‘absolutely’ considering a revival of ID cards to tackle the Channel crisis
That benefit cannot be understated as we need to close off the easy money-making opportunities afforded by organised criminals operating freely in Britain’s out-of-control black market. The French are right when they chide us about easy access to low paid jobs. The fact that undocumented migrants can find work – whether in food delivery, catering or cleaning – is a key reason so many choose to come to Britain rather than remaining in continental Europe.
And that in turn means we should embrace the technology all around us and introduce a UK-wide identity system.
It is essential that we prevent people from working or from claiming state benefits unless they are entitled to do so.
As things stand – and despite what the law says in theory – employers and public service administrators make only minimal checks on individuals seeking work or state support and there is no fully authenticated system for identifying who these people are.
The task of working out who has the legal right to work here has become almost impossible. Policing it is a nightmare. In practice, moreover, no employer is going to challenge an individual because, for example, of the way they look or the accent with which they speak. They risk being shot down in flames, accused of discrimination. That’s why, in my view, a comprehensive, coherent identity system is a no-brainer. It would be an obvious deterrent to those coming across the Channel.
Of course, I understand the concerns of those who feel that ID cards herald an authoritarian, ‘papers, please’ society in which police can demand any person prove their identity on the spot. But this is Orwellian paranoia – as they do now, police will only stop people that they have good cause to believe are up to no good.
Moreover, we have become used to providing age and identity verification, particularly when accessing online banking. The world has moved on.
Every young person that I know has a smartphone loaded with all kinds of information, which already provide them with the equivalent of a ‘passport’.
We are surrounded by such systems. We have a ‘Unique Pupil Identifier’ for young people in schools, for example.
Our NHS number allows easy access to digital records online and is being upgraded. The DVLA driving agency is moving to a digital licence system later this year.
The Government itself has set up what it describes as a ‘wallet’ into which a whole range of information will allow easy identification and cut down bureaucracy in terms of people’s access to both national, government and local services.
In other words, we’re already well on the way to digital ID ‘cards’ whether we like it or not.
The recent White Paper on migration certainly acknowledges the power of new technology. It talks about substantially updating the identity and tracking system for anyone coming in on a visa or being granted asylum.
But these ‘electronic visas’, or ‘eVisas’ – however welcome in theory – are no substitute for a basic ID system.
There is no point in trying to develop a new electronic apparatus for those who are not yet British citizens when the bigger point is that the rest of us face no obligation to identify ourselves for work or to draw down on public services.
It’s time to take the bull by the horns and seize the opportunity.
Why not take credit for a really substantial and clearly understood step into the 21st century, with all the necessary safeguards that an ad-hoc system doesn’t provide?
Not only would this be convenient for the individual – for travelling both in the country and overseas, and for proving age, for instance as part of the new vapes and tobacco legislation – but it would help clamp down on a range of frauds.
Not least cyber fraud, by allowing firms that are the target of hackers to verify the background of their employees.
From money-laundering to those cheating the rest of us by claiming benefits illegally, we will be able to protect and build confidence in the essential services we all value.
By doing so we can create a society where we welcome those genuinely entitled to be in the country, while those who aren’t will regret making the perilous journey in the first place.
