Keir Starmer has slammed the “lies” that are being told about Britain as the Prime Minister officially announced digital ID rollout at the Global Progress Action summit in London.
Sir Keir addressed the need for progressive politicians to “confront directly” the “lies” being told about their countries.
The Prime Minister said: “I don’t accept that argument that somehow our politics is dying out, but I do accept that it is now time for social democrats to confront directly some of the challenges and some of the lies, frankly, that have taken root in our societies.
“Because we don’t just hear these stories about our politics. We also hear stories about our own countries, our communities, our cities that simply do not match the reality that we see around us.”
He added that London was not “the wasteland of anarchy” it was sometimes portrayed as in social media by “a sort of industrialised culture of grievance, and entire world, not just a world view, created through our devices” that was “demonstrably untrue”.
The Prime Minister went on to announce the introduction of digital IDs to ensure Britain’s “borders are more secure”.
He said that “you will not be able to work in the United Kingdom if you do not have a digital ID. It’s as simple as that
“We won’t solve our problems if we don’t take on the root causes.”
Senior Downing Street aide Darren Jones has the Government’s plans would form the “bedrock of the modern state” if ministers get it right.
The Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister said he would be co-ordinating the system, which he said he sees as one of Labour’s key policies, from the Cabinet Office.
He told the Global Progress Action summit: “If we get this digital ID system working and the public being with us, that will be the bedrock of the modern state and will allow for really quite exciting public service reform in the future.”
Director of government innovation policy at the Tony Blair Institute Alexander Iosad said: “The Prime Minister is right to say in his speech today that we need to show people the state is on their side and make it work for them. Digital ID can and should be the gateway to this.
“The contribution digital ID can make to combating illegal migration and the criminal groups that exploit desperate people is part of this. But importantly, digital ID can do so much more for our citizens, our communities, and our country.”
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Darren Jones said the plans would form the ‘bedrock of the modern state’
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GB News’ Home and Security Editor Mark White has warned that the PM’s announcement today will not stop the boats.
However, Mark predicted that 2,000 migrants are massing in northern France at this moment, following a pattern seen already this year.
“Instead of a regular summer drumbeat of two or three hundred small boat migrants, we’re seeing a week or more of nothing, then a huge surge of a thousand or more in a single day,” Mark said.
A total of 1,157 people have arrived on small boats in the last week, according to Home Office statistics.
The announcement of the scheme has drawn widespread condemnation from across the political spectrum, from Tory leader Kemi Badenoch to Your Party co-leader Jeremy Corbyn.
Mrs Badenoch said: “This is a throwaway conference announcement designed to distract attention from Andy Burnham’s leadership maneuverings and the crisis in Downing Street over the Prime Minister’s chief of staff.
“The Government has struggled to enforce its feeble one-in-one-out deal with France, which has turned into 100-in-one-out national embarrassment.
“Can we really trust it to implement an expensive national programme that will impact all of our lives and put additional burdens on law-abiding people? I doubt it.”
Jeremy Corbyn said the plans were an ‘affront to our civil liberties’
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Mr Corbyn said: “I firmly oppose the government’s plans for compulsory digital ID cards.
“This is an affront to our civil liberties, and will make the lives of minorities even more difficult and dangerous. It is excessive state interference, and must be resisted.”
The civil liberty group Big Brother Watch also warned against their introduction. A petition started by the group has reached more than 101,000 signatures.
In a letter to Sir Keir on Wednesday, the group said: “Mandatory digital ID is highly unlikely to achieve the Government’s objective of tackling unauthorised immigration.
“The proposed schemes fundamentally misunderstand the ‘pull factors’ that drive migration to the UK and would do very little to tackle criminal people-smuggling gangs or employers and landlords who operate ‘off the books.’
“Instead, it would push unauthorised migrants further into the shadows, into more precarious work and unsafe housing.”