Tory leader Kemi Badenoch believes Prime Minister can be forced into embarrassing climbdown, just as he was with grooming gangs inquiry and winter fuel payments
There is fierce opposition to the PM’s plans for Digital ID on smartphones (Image: Getty)
Fighting Labour’s plans to make having a digital ID a requirement to work in the UK is the next big campaign, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has told supporters. In a mass email, she compared the battle to stop the introduction of the new ID to the campaigns for the restoration of pensioners’ winter fuel payments and a national inquiry into grooming gangs.
Accusing Sir Keir Starmer’s Government of “overreach”, she said: “Now they want to stop you getting a job or a house, unless you carry digital identification. And let’s be honest, we know it won’t end there.” The Tory leader claimed that if you refuse to have a digital ID “you won’t be able to do many of the everyday things we take for granted”.
She insisted the ID would not be “just a mobile phone application” and said it comes from “a Government already reaching far too much into our everyday lives”.
“People are worried,” she added. “And I don’t blame them … In the days of sophisticated cyber crime, and a Government machine already doing too many things badly – how can we trust the Government to keep our information safe? We can’t.”
Arguing that the reform is not needed, she said: “Labour say IDs will stop people from getting a job or a house when they shouldn’t. But they’re wrong. These checks are already being made.
“And at a time when Labour say we don’t have enough cash to give hardworking families tax cuts. Keir Starmer seems to have found cash behind the sofa to place more controls on our everyday lives.”
A petition on the UK Parliament website opposing the introduction of Digital ID has been signed more than 1.8 million times.
Downing Street says digital IDs – which have been championed by the Tony Blair Institute – will “curb the prospect of work for illegal migrants”, saying this is a “significant factor driving small boat crossings”. It also claims the scheme will “make it easier for the public to access the services they are entitled to”.
There is also opposition to digital IDs in Australia (Image: Getty)
But Mrs Badenoch said the plans could be reversed.
She told supporters: “Over 330,000 people backed our campaign to save winter fuel payments. Keir Starmer U-turned. We worked with victims and campaigners to force Keir Starmer to U-turn on a national inquiry into the grooming gangs.
“So together, let’s make Keir Starmer U-turn again.”
