Digital ID cards would be good for Britain – and a secret weapon for Labour against Reform | Polly Toynbee

The BritCard project would cut down on bureaucracy, help guard our borders and prove Labour has pride in British identity

“P

apers please!” Those words strike terror in a thousand war movies. Stasi or Gestapo officers are a breed apart from the unarmed plod who demands no ID cards from free British people. So when the government contemplates a universal ID, it sends instinctive twitches down some spines.

Though not many. Times and public attitudes have changed. And so have the political imperatives, for it seems that, for a Labour government struggling to seize the narrative after a difficult year in power, digital ID cards – and the sense of national belonging they could strengthen – may just be the weapon needed to fight off the ever-rising threat of Nigel Farage’s Reform.

Look to Labour Together, the thinktank closest to government, which has just published a paper calling for a digital ID system – a “verifiable digital credential downloaded onto a user’s smartphone, which could be instantly checked by employers or landlords using a free verifier app”. One of its main virtues is simplification. There are currently 191 ways to set up accounts and access services on gov.uk, with 44 sign-in methods. A universal ID is popular: More in Common finds 53% in favour, with 25% strongly in favour and only 19% against, backed by a majority of supporters of Labour, the Tories, the Liberal Democrats and Reform UK, and across all ages.