The UK government’s drive to impose a national digital ID system is facing heavy fire from across the political spectrum, even as Labour Party officials continue pushing to expand its use.
During an October 13 parliamentary discussion, Science, Innovation and Technology Secretary Liz Kendall laid out a sweeping vision for digital identification.
Her proposed uses stretched from accessing housing and childcare services to routine activities such as opening a bank account or buying alcohol.
Brushing off critics, Kendall dismissed opposition as “misinformation” and “scaremongering.”
“I think there is some scaremongering about this issue,” she said.
According to Kendall, digital IDs will make the government more efficient.
“Such schemes in other countries really have made Government fit around people, rather than making people fit into Government and their different services, and I think that is a huge benefit,” she argued.
She cited Denmark, Finland, and Estonia as models.
Those countries that integrate digital identity into everything from daycare enrollment to issuing IDs at birth.
Foreign Failures Expose Digital ID Dangers
Yet the very countries Kendall praised have suffered massive digital ID disasters.
In Denmark, a 2020 breach exposed the ID numbers of over 1.2 million citizens.
Another flaw in 2022 allowed users to see other people’s bank accounts.
Estonia has faced multiple meltdowns.
In 2011, a software failure hit 120,000 ID cards.
In 2017, nearly 760,000 cards were compromised by faulty chip software.
In 2021, hackers accessed personal identity photos of over 286,000 people.
Despite these warnings and despite a petition signed by nearly three million people opposing digital ID, Kendall insisted the scheme reflects the public’s will.
“Trying to get Government services to talk to one another and work more effectively is what people want,” she claimed.
MPs Warn of Authoritarian Overreach
Her assurances did little to calm lawmakers.
Across party lines, MPs blasted the scheme as dangerous and authoritarian.
Conservative MP Julia Lopez warned that requiring digital ID for employment means people “cannot meaningfully consent,” pointing to international cases where the technology has left populations vulnerable.
Liberal Democrat MP Victoria Collins accused the government of designing a system that would “exclude millions,” calling it “mandatory in all but name.”
Conservative MP Ben Obese-Jecty labelled the plan “alarming state overreach.”
SNP MP Pete Wishart condemned digital ID as “an attack on our liberty and privacy” and pledged to fight it under the Labour-led government.
Conservative MP Lewis Cocking blasted the agenda as “authoritarian,” warning that British citizens “did not vote for a two-tier digital police state run by this failing Labour Government.”
Surveillance State Creep
While Labour officials sell the proposal as a way to “simplify access” to services, critics warn it is a Trojan horse for centralized control.
Once tied to employment, banking, housing, and healthcare, digital ID becomes inescapable, creating a two-tier system where access to daily life is dictated by state approval.
Privacy advocates caution that the risks extend beyond data leaks: the scheme would hand government bureaucrats, and potentially hackers, unprecedented power over citizens’ private lives.
Opposition is mounting, and MPs vow to resist.
But the Labour government continues pressing forward, pushing Britain closer to what critics call a digital police state in the making.
READ MORE – UK Government Advances Plan to Mandate Digital ID for All Children
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