00:00The government says a digital identity card would make life easier for millions of people.
00:06Supporters claim it could speed up access to public services, reduce fraud and cut down on paperwork by storing all details securely in one place.
00:15But the plan is not without controversy, with critics warning it risks undermining privacy and excluding vulnerable groups.
00:23Well, there's no doubt that the biggest driver of this is migration, particularly, of course, so-called illegal migration or illegal immigrants coming on boats.
00:32The idea is that sort of having ID cards will somehow be a disincentive to those coming here.
00:38And also particularly to the view that sort of many of the people who come here who are legally not allowed to work,
00:45but to actually do work in the sort of the black economy that somehow or other this will sort of disincentivise that.
00:51The difficulty is, like all sort of schemes such as this, is how will it be operationalised, how will it be policed and what will be the sanctions of not having sort of the ID card.
01:00It's a hugely complex initiative.
01:04It will be expensive.
01:05It will take time.
01:06And, of course, the big issue that I see it from sort of Salma's point of view is the opposition he's going to get from his own party.
01:13He may sort of think that he can rely upon the Conservatives.
01:15But, of course, the Conservatives, they have traditionally been sort of the view that this is an infringement of civil liberties.
01:22And so they might be sort of against it.
01:23This might be sort of the ditch that sort of Stalmer dies in in terms of his leadership of his own party,
01:31where he's the left wings who are traditionally opposed to sort of such restrictions on sort of movement and the use of ID.
01:40But they may say that this is enough and it may sort of launch a sort of leadership campaign against him or sort of to oppose him, of course.
01:48In other European countries, identity cards have become part of everyday life.
01:53They're used to prove legal status, open bank accounts or confirm detail quickly when applying for work.
02:00Ministers argue that adopting a similar approach here could modernise services and make it harder for people without the right documents to find employment.
02:08We are sort of an outlier, apart from South Ireland, both North and South.
02:13Of course, North being sort of part of the UK, where you are not required to carry an ID card.
02:17So, you know, we leave the house and we don't, we cannot prove who we are.
02:21People enjoy that sort of freedom.
02:24You know, the difficulty is that sort of, you know, when we sort of are expected to carry ID cards, I do wonder what will the punishment be?
02:32I can see a situation where lots of people from civil liberties groups will deliberately sort of go out and make it known that they're not carrying an ID card.
02:41And I think this is seen, if you like, as a sort of a knee-jerk reaction by the Labour government, particularly Starmer, who believes that they need to do something to sort of to curb the sort of the problems of people coming on boats.
02:52But I don't see that this, this is going to necessarily disincentivise people enough.
02:57They will come from France, most particularly, and many other European countries, where, of course, they will be expected to prove their identity.
03:04And, of course, you know, as we know, people who arrive here often don't have any sort of proof of identity whatsoever.
03:09Concerns remain over how such a system would operate in practice.
03:13Civil liberty groups fear it could create a culture of constant identity checks with personal data stored and potentially misused.
03:23Campaigners also highlight the risk of leaving behind those without smartphones or reliable digital access.
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