Welcome to ‘papers, please’ Britain: ID cards threaten our privacy and individual rights, writes David Davis MP

As published by LBC

Keir Starmer has announced that all UK adults will be required to have digital ID cards under his new plan.

Two-thirds of Britons do not trust the Government to keep their personal information secure.

They are right to be concerned. The plan will effectively centralise the management of all the data that the Government keeps on you – from medical history to tax accounts, from welfare eligibility to passport records – and in so doing, give the Government sweeping access to vast amounts of sensitive data for digital IDs.

I have long campaigned against the introduction of mandatory ID cards in the UK, as they would require undue intrusion by the state and be severely detrimental to personal privacy and individual liberty.

We won this argument in the early years of this century, which is why Tony Blair effectively abandoned the original ID card plan after investing vast amounts of government effort in legislating and preparing for it.

There are numerous reasons for not wanting the Government to have such a centralised record system, one being that, based on historical evidence, they will lose it.

Even sophisticated high-tech organisations struggle to protect the data they hold.

In 2019 a Facebook data breach exposed the personal information of over 500 million Facebook users across more than 100 countries. This included full names, phone numbers, locations, email addresses and biographical information.

Between November 2022 and January 2023, security flaws exposed over 200 million Twitter users’ data, including email addresses and names, due to repeated security flaws. Hackers then posted the data on hacker forums.

Just last year, a data breach at Ticketmaster resulted in the loss of 560 million records. The group of hackers, known as Shiny Hunters, stole names, addresses, phone numbers, and partial credit card details from Ticketmaster users worldwide.

Ticketmaster, Twitter, and Facebook spend millions, if not billions, every year on cybersecurity. Other tech companies have faced similar data breaches.

If Silicon Valley cannot keep your data safe, do we truly believe Whitehall stands a chance?

If you are still convinced by this heavy-handed scheme, look only to the Government’s own track record.

Blair’s original ID card project lost public support when the Government lost over 20 million citizens’ records.

State incompetence has not improved.

Earlier this year, the Legal Aid Agency lost 2 million pieces of data about domestic abuse victims.

Famously, the Ministry of Defence put large numbers of Afghan allies’ lives at risk when it accidentally leaked their names.

Last year, Whitehall lost over 2,000 items of digital equipment, including phones, tablets, and laptops, along with their data.

Today, it may take the work of milliseconds for cybercriminals or foreign states to steal all our data, made easier by the Government’s centralisation of access to it.

If that happens, it will not just be embarrassing. It will be both costly and irreversible for ordinary citizens.

Of all the threats facing Britain today, we have now added an entirely self-inflicted one: a potential centralised digital ID system vulnerable to attack and abuse.

While digital IDs and ID cards sound like modern and efficient solutions to problems like illegal immigration, such claims are misleading at best.

These systems pose profound dangers to privacy and fundamental freedoms.

If you ask politicians, they will promise you that your data will be safe. Just test that promise: ask them if they’re willing to pay £10,000 in compensation to each victim in the event of a serious breach. The answer will be no, because they do not really believe it is safe themselves.

And all that is before we consider the risks inherent in centralising so much information power in the hands of a state that will be augmented by AI search engines.

This is a policy that depends on every future Government consisting only of decent people of universally high moral probity when it comes to respecting your privacy.

Do we really want to become a “papers, please” society?

I think we all know the answer is no.

Does anybody really believe that this will stop illegal immigration? Yet again, ordinary decent citizens are being asked to pay a price for persistent government behaviour.