Get your DIC out for Starmer

With all the anger and controversy over the Labour government’s proposal to introduce mandatory digital ID cards for everyone legally resident in the UK, no one is now talking about the anger and controversy over Starmer’s chief of staff Morgan McSweeney and his dodgy undeclared donations, no murder tents are about to be parked on that lawn any time soon. Neither is the media talking about the brewing challenge within the Labour party to what we are contractually obliged to call Starmer’s leadership. So in that respect, the digital ID card proposal has already been very successful.

The controversial plans were mooted by the right wing Labour Together think tank, the group which propelled Starmer to power, and the Tony Blair Institute, the former prime minister’s lobbying group.

The first reports about the plans for compulsory digital ID cards told us that the digital document would be called the Britcard. This went down like a bucket of cold vomit amongst the Republican community in the north of Ireland and amongst that large segment of the Scottish population which supports independence, many of whom would rather walk barefoot in dug shite than be forced to carry a union flag themed Brit card on their mobile phone.

On a recent trip to England I was struck by how many car licence plates carry Union flags, the format for car licence plates which was officially introduced a few years ago. The flag on licence plates is optional, but while it is commonplace on vehicles in England, it is only occasionally seen on vehicles in Scotland. Partly this may be because being much further from mainland Europe, Scots are less likely to take their cars abroad, but it is also due to an awareness in Scotland that Union flags are not a politically neutral symbol but rather a highly politicised statement about the debate on Scottish independence and identity. In the 2022 census, two thirds of Scots identified as Scottish not British. That two thirds of the Scottish population is equally likely to angrily reject a “Brit card”, as they are to reject a union flag on their car licence plate or to resent the British flag on their driving licence.

While you can buy saltire stickers to cover up the offensive butcher’s apron on your driving licence, that’s not really a practical solution to a digital card on your mobile phone. That’ll teach those uppity Scots that there’s no escaping mandatory Britishness, and hundreds of thousands will gratefully flock back to supporting a Labour party whose polling numbers are going down rapidly, which is fitting. The condescending party’s con is descending.

But within a few hours of the tone-deaf British nationalist announcement, the scale of the anger was such that wee Dougie Alexander was forced to slime out a statement that the Brit Card would not in fact be called a Brit Card after all. It’s going to be called the Digital Identity Card instead, and when it’s introduced, people will be compelled to get their DIC out whenever asked by some random official, employer, bank teller, the wummin at the post office or Amazon delivery guy.

However what it’s called, or what its announcement is designed to distract from are the least of the issues with this latest march into authoritarianism by Keir Starmer.

Firstly, there is no need for it. People who are required to prove their identity already have means by which to do so. A DIC will not do anything to reduce illegal migration. Once the oh no it’s not a Brit Card is introduced, people who are in the UK illegally will not be able to take up a new job in the UK without showing it to their employer, rent a flat or open a bank account. This differs massively from the current system which doesn’t allow them to work until they’ve proven their identity to their prospective employer, landlord, or bank and given them their National Insurance number or other ID.

More alarmingly, the British Government has a woeful record when it comes to designing, implementing, and introducing major IT projects. This project will be farmed out to the private sector which is already licking its lips at the prospect of the billions of pounds of public money it’s set to receive, and all that sensitive data on every person in the UK that the government is going to give it. It’s perhaps no coincidence that in February 2025, Keir Starmer visited Palantir’s headquarters in Washington. Freedom of Information requests by the Good Law Project revealed the visit was arranged through the British Embassy — then headed by Mandelson. Palantir is the data company owned by controversial far right billionaire Peter Thiel, a man who is open in his hostility to democracy. Do you trust billionaire fascist Peter Thiel and his Palantir data company with your information? Do you trust the British Government not to use this data for surveillance and control?

Decentralised ID systems, such as the ID systems currently used in the UK, are more robust in that they cannot be tracked or hacked by hostile agents. Not a week goes by without news of yet another cyber security breach. Yet we are supposed to believe that this new digital card will be totally secure.

Paper or card ID systems cannot be used to track a population in the same way that a digital system could. There’s nothing to prevent as future authoritarian government using this digital system to track the movements of citizens, to keep tabs on their social media use, or to identify members of groups which the government deems potentially hostile, like its political opponents, members of minority groups, or supporters of Scottish or Welsh independence.

Of course we will be assured that none of this is going to happen, that the government will only use the data in very limited ways. But we’ve heard this kind of thing before, and what we know for certain is that Keir Starmer cannot be trusted to keep his word. Meanwhile waiting in the wings is the frog-faced fascist Nigel Farage, who can be trusted even less.

This is after all the same British Government which when it gave itself far reaching powers to crack down on terrorist organisations promised that they would never be used to limit freedom of speech and protest. Ask direct action protest groups how that has turned out.

Then there are other issues. Digital poverty is a very real phenomenon. If a person can no longer afford to pay their mobile phone contract, they could find themselves unable to prove their identity in order to access benefits or work. Announcing the plan, Starmer said: “Let me spell that out: You will not be able to work in the United Kingdom if you do not have digital ID. It’s as simple as that.” So is he also proposing to give mobile phones and free wi-fi to people who can’t afford them?

Disabled people like me often struggle with mobile phone use. I have to get my husband to use the banking app on my mobile phone for me as I lack the ability to type in the security information to access my account. I need a full keyboard to type.

This is a dreadful idea on every level. It will be expensive, the cost will run into the tens of billions, if not more. If other UK Government IT projects are anything to go by, it will be repeatedly delayed, costs will balloon, and it represents a dangerous step into authoritarianism. Starmer can DIC off.

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