A new showdown is looming between the Scottish and UK governments after John Swinney said he was opposed to introducing a digital ID scheme.
Under the plan being announced by Prime minister Sir Keir Starmer today every worker in Britain will require a new government-issued digital ID card as part of measures to tackle illegal immigration.
Sir Keir says the compulsory”Brit Card” would verify a citizen’s right to work in the UK, rent a home and access public services.
The approach is likely to be modelled on Estonia, where people are given a unique digital ID that they can use to register births, marriages, divorces and deaths, access their bank accounts, vote and book GP appointments.
Sir Keir will say: “For too many years it’s been too easy for people to come here, slip into the shadow economy and remain here illegally.
“It is not compassionate left-wing politics to rely on labour that exploits foreign workers and undercuts fair wages.”
However, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has described the plan was an attack on “the freedoms of law-abiding Brits”.
He has an unlikely ally in the shape of Scotland’s First Minister. Mr Swinney who said on X: “I am opposed to mandatory digital ID – people should be able to go about their daily lives without such infringements.
“That aside, by calling it BritCard, the Prime Minister seems to be attempting to force every Scot to declare ourselves British. I am a Scot.”
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “The Scottish Government is opposed to the introduction of any card that is compulsory to have, compulsory to carry or that anyone can demand to see, including that of a digital ID.”
The prime minister’s primary concern is not Scotland, but the threat from Reform UK whose popularity has rocketed in recent months on the back of widespread disillusion with the Labour government.
A YouGov poll says Reform UK has extended its lead and is on track to increase its current five MPs to 311, which would make it comfortably the largest party in a hung parliament and within touching distance of the 326 MPs needed for an outright majority. This marks a substantial increase on the findings of a poll in June which showed the party on track to have 271 MPs.
Sir Keir’s leadership is also under pressure from within his own party as he heads into the Labour party conference this weekend.
Support has gathered around Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham who has not dismissed a third attempt at the leadership.
It comes amid anger at Sir Keir’s failure to deliver on manifesto commitments and poor decisions that have lumbered businesses with higher costs that are holding back the economy.
Speaking at the Global Progressive Action Conference in London today alongside other world leaders including Australian Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, and Canadian Prime Minister, Mark Carney, Sir Keir will firmly reject the notion that the future of politics lies in division and decline, and call on progressives everywhere to fight for the patriotic renewal Britain needs.
He is expected to accuse Mr Farage of pursuing the “politics of predatory grievance” and “preying on the problems of working people. Using that infrastructure of division… against the politics of patriotic renewal.”
Sir Keir will seek to present Labour as a more optimistic alternative, offering the “politics of patriotic renewal”. He will say this means “building a better country brick by brick, from the bottom up” and “difference under the same flag”.
However, Reform UK’s popularity is attributed largely to the failure of successive governments to tackle illegal immigration with thousands arriving by small boats and being offered priority on accommodation and healthcare.
In an article for The Daily Telegraph, Sir Keir admitted that for years Labour “did shy away from people’s concerns around illegal immigration”.
He wrote: “It has been too easy for people to enter the country, work in the shadow economy and remain illegally. We must be absolutely clear that tackling every aspect of the problem of illegal immigration is essential.
“Equally, the belief that uncontrolled legal migration was nothing but good news for an economy should never have been accepted on the left. It is not compassionate left-wing politics to rely on labour that exploits foreign workers and undercuts fair wages.”
Immigration was a major factor in the Brexit vote, particularly in Labour heartlands where voters believe Labour has betrayed their concerns.
Shabana Mahmood, the Home Secretary, is also more supportive of ID cards than her predecessor, Yvette Cooper, and earlier this month said digital ID would help “clamp down” on illegal working.
On Thursday night more than 300,000 people had signed a petition on the government’s website calling for ID cards not to be introduced.
However, the UK and Ireland are the only countries in Europe without some form of ID card system, although public opinion has been largely supportive for some time.
A spokesman for Reform UK said: “It’s laughable that those already breaking immigration law will suddenly comply, or that digital IDs will have any impact on illegal work, which thrives on cash-in-hand payments. All it will do is impinge further on the freedoms of law-abiding Brits.”
Kemi Badenoch, the Tory leader, said the plan was “a desperate gimmick that will do nothing to stop the boats”.
Former PM Sir Tony Blair has been a long-time advocate of an ID scheme.
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