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Downing Street is exploring a proposal to introduce digital ID cards for every adult in Britain in a move to tackle the UK’s illegal migration crisis, according to reports.
The new “BritCard” would be used to check on an individual’s right to live and work in Britain, with senior No 10 figures examining the proposal, The Times has reported.
The card, stored on a smartphone, would reportedly be linked to government records and could check entitlements to benefits and monitor welfare fraud.
The scheme’s supporters think it would send a clear signal that the UK is not “soft touch” on illegal migration and would help ease the small boats crisis.
The idea was one of former prime minister Tony Blair’s flagship policies in Downing Street, but it was killed off after he lost power.
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The proposal from the thinktank Labour Together, whose founders include the No 10 chief of staff Morgan McSweeney, has been backed previously by dozens of Labour MPs, with the new paper endorsed by two “red wall” MPs, Jake Richards and Adam Jogee.
The analysis in the paper found that the ID cards – a hugely controversial policy proposal during Tony Blair’s era – would make right-to-rent and right-to-work checks quicker and easier for tenants and employees.
The paper reportedly said that it would cost up to £400m to build the system and around £10m a year to administer as a free-to-use phone app.
In their foreword, Richards, the MP for Rother Valley, and Jogee, the MP for Newcastle-under-Lyme, said the BritCard “should form an important part of Labour’s enforcement strategy that does not compromise our principles and values”, according to reports.
They said that those living in the UK without regular status were “exploited by criminal employers, which in turn suppresses wages for legal citizens and migrants alike”.
They said the coalition government’s “hostile environment” had made very little difference to the overall numbers but had had a disproportionately cruel effect on those unfairly targeted.
“The Windrush scandal saw thousands of people wrongly targeted by immigration enforcement, including many legitimate British citizens who were unjustly detained or deported,” they said.
“We believe that a progressive government does not have to choose between dealing with these injustices. It must tackle them all head on.”
