‘This is a mess’ - South Shields MP calls for the Government to scrap digital ID plans
The Member of Parliament for South Shields has called for the Government to scrap its digital ID plans.
Emma Lewell, the MP for South Shields, has branded the Government’s digital ID plans a “mess” and has called for them to be scrapped in the House of Commons.
Cabinet Office minister Josh Simons faced questions about the scheme in the Commons on Thursday (January 15) from his own party’s backbenchers, amid fears of a U-turn on mandatory credentials.
The policy was announced last September by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, saying at a London conference: “You will not be able to work in the United Kingdom if you do not have digital ID.”
Mr Simons told the Commons that digital ID would not be “a conditional basis” for accessing Government services, but added right to work checks “will be digital and they will be mandatory” by the 2030s.
He said digital ID would “transform the state and make it work better for ordinary working people”.
Many Labour MPs hit out at the plans, with Ms Lewell being one of the them as she stated that the measures are “un-British”.
She said: “This is a mess.
“In the context of increasing surveillance, DWP (Department for Work and Pensions) powers to snoop on bank accounts, removal of trials by jury, postponing elections, and clamping down on peaceful protest, the public are starting to become very angry about these encroachments on our fundamental freedoms and creeping state control.
“It is all inherently un-British.
“Now, I know this isn’t (Mr Simons’s) fault, but can he please convey for me to whoever is behind this farce that they are doing this Government no favours at all, and it is time to scrap this costly project altogether.”
Mr Simons stated that the system will give members of the public “more control” over how their data is used than what is currently possible.
He responded: “I, too, believe in freedom.
“Any good digital system must be trusted. If it is not trusted, it doesn’t work, and that will be at the heart of the consultation that we will publish in a few weeks.
“The system that we build will give citizens more control and information about how their data is used and who accesses it than they currently have now.
“It will be decentralised with strong firewalls between datasets so that there is no central data storage beyond data the Government already holds, and it will hold the minimum possible data needed to serve ordinary people better.”