WHEN Keir Starmer announced in September 2025 the government was bringing in ‘mandatory Digital ID Cards’ or a ‘Britcard’ to ‘stop the boats’ the British Public sent a huge message back: No! Almost Three Million signatures said this is not how we do things in Britain. The Prime Minister was forced into another embarrassing U Turn, saying it would no longer be compulsory.
The level of fury that met with the announcement could only surprise a technocratic elite that is totally out of touch with the majority of the British Public. Britain has never wanted national ID Cards. In 1952 Winston Churchill dispensed with the wartime National Identity Card having campaigned under the slogan “Set the people free”.
Brits knew the attempt to pretend Digital ID would somehow ‘stop the boats’ of illegal migrants was utter nonsense. France, Italy and Germany all have digital ID cards and immense problems with illegal migration. The ridicule that was heaped on the Prime Minister was the best of British.
It is fantastic that so many people made their voices heard loud and clear – indeed on this issue from all ‘sides’ of the political spectrum. Not least within The Labour Party itself and on the back benches. The Together Association, of which I am a co-founder and Chair, staged a protest outside Labour Party Conference saying #notodigitalid citizens, along with Farmers and covered Parliament with an illuminated projection saying No To Digital ID.
However, as we soon heard from Darren Jones, Digital ID has not ‘gone away’. It would now be used as a matter of ‘making life convenient’ – to prevent having to look for documents in the drawer (!)
The attempt to impose National ID Cards on the British Public has been a particular obsession of Tony Blair and The Tony Blair Institute. Having spent hundreds of millions of Pounds on a botched attempt and several tries, it was moribund in 2010. Since then, Tony Blair has been peddling this idea continuously – attempting to use the draconian climate during lockdowns to push for ‘more freedoms for those with a Vaccine Passport’!
At Together we all managed to push back against so-called Vaccine Passports and through the efforts of concerted campaigning across Britain saw them off, along with any Vaccine Mandate for health workers. However, the weak authoritarians that are in power and a Prime Minister who ‘prefers Davos to Westminster’ are determined to impose a Digital ID system on us all.
That is why, while all the noise of a ‘Britcard’ has been going on, the infrastructure underpinning a Digital ID system has been being developed via One Login and the gov.uk Digital App.
One Login is the system that has been used to impose on 8 million Company Directors to have to deliver their tax returns to HMRC. Currently there is still the option to use an ACSP Accountant to deliver your accounts without Logging in to One Login. We are encouraging everyone to do this temporarily. However, we should never be in a situation that we have to Digitally Verify simply to participate and exist in society. This is what One Login is forcing. See Together Campaign link https://togetherdeclaration.org/campaigns/no-to-digital-id/#actions
Above One Login, The Gov UK Digital App is to pitched to hold all official documents digitally.
Where was all of this in any Manifesto? Nowhere.
Just like Facial Recognition Technology being used by police forces and Councils up and down the country. We have had no national debate about this and no consent. It is simply being imposed upon us all.
At Together, we believe this is unacceptable. We only need to reflect on some of the recent things that have happened in Britain to give us serious pause for concern;
- Debanking – We saw with the scandalous debanking situation that those with particular political views, campaigners and politicians alike were being targeted for bank account closures
- Data Breaches – from Jaguar Land Rover and the enormous impacts to our our economy to Heathrow closure and Marks & Spencer consistently we see corporates with Big Tech relationships not able to protect from data breaches. The idea that this government can is preposterous. The Horizon Post Office Scandal, medical Blood transfusion scandals and of course the fact that One Login is unsafe as Whistleblowers have leaked along with the breaching of data for Afghan Service Personnel should make even the most ardent advocate concerned.
- Concerns with Policing and Judiciary – over the last few years enormous concerns about ideologically driven ‘Two Tier Policing’ and Judiciary alongside imprisoning people for Social Media Posts (while ignoring shoplifting and burglary) and the obscene ‘Non Crime Hate Incidents’ have been enormous glaring issues for Britain. What will ‘anti Muslim hate’ laws mean for anyone asking questions or challenging the government for instance on border policy and migrant hotels? With a digital ID system where we all have to show who we are online (and then offline) this bodes very badly
- Age Gating – the push to follow Australia and force the entire nation to prove digitally who we are to sign on to Social Media is an assault on our Liberty and freedom. All in the name of course of ‘protecting children’. The Online Safety Act was supposed to do that – yet has become a Censor’s Charter to shut things down: like the debate Together had on The Assisted Suicide Bill which was pulled down from Google and Youtube – why? Because of Algorithm or direct intervention? Probably ‘well intentioned’ to shut down those promoting online suicide. But see the irony? We have campaigned against State Killing via this Bill and have been shut down for doing so.
The bottom line is we should never have to ‘prove’ who we are to exist in our land. We have ample identifications currently from Driving License to Passport and National Security Number. This government has no solutions to deal with border security, the out of control Civil Service, the spiralling economy (which it has made far worse) and the other issues we face across society. This is where their focus should be. But alas they are more inclined to create an all encompassing, data breach-y leaky Biometric Surveillance State Digital ID System.
Well, those of us who do not like that idea are campaigning up and down the country. This culminates on Saturday 25 April 2pm with our Scrap Digital ID Together 4 Nation Rally, in Trafalgar Square London, Senedd Cardiff, Belfast City centre and Holyrood Edinburgh.
