Ministers believe the ‘Brit card’ will help in the fight against illegal immigration
Every adult across Britain will be required to carry digital identification cards under Labour’s new strategy to combat illegal immigration.
The Prime Minister is set to approve the scheme on Friday, following concerns that the shadow economy is encouraging Channel migrants to make dangerous crossings in small boats.
Ministers will probably need to bring forward fresh legislation for the proposed “Brit card”.
Asylum seekers staying in government accommodation have been observed working for delivery companies, including JustEat and Deliveroo.
Some have even confessed to arranging unauthorised employment before reaching British shores, reports the Express.
Anyone beginning fresh employment would be required to present the digital ID card, enabling authorities to verify the person against a central registry of those permitted to work in Britain.
Property owners would also be permitted to verify someone’s immigration status, it is understood.
Sir Keir Starmer is reported to have reversed his position on the plans after appeals from prominent figures including French President Emmanuel Macron.
Former Home Office minister Tom Pursglove described the proposal as “a new low” for Labour.
He continued: “We already have right to work, rent and bank checks, with increasing biometric capabilities.
“This new ‘Digital ID’ will impinge on the freedoms – “Papers please!” – of the law abiding majority and won’t make a shred of difference to the problem it purports to solve.”
This development follows six migrants being returned under Keir Starmer’s one-in-one-out arrangement with Emmanuel Macron. An Afghan and a Somali were sent back to the continent on Thursday morning, it is understood.
Others deported last week were from Iran, Afghanistan, Eritrea and India.
More than 32,000 people have arrived in the UK after making the dangerous journey so far this year.
On Wednesday night, Boris Johnson urged the Prime Minister to reverse its decision to cancel the Rwanda deportation scheme.
He said: “I think the government today should swallow its pride and get Rwanda done.
“What we have at the moment is a failure to control illegal immigration well.
“And that is, in fact, thanks to Brexit.
“We can do that because if you look at, if you look at the cross Channel, the people coming across in the dinghy, in the boats, that’s the thing that really drives the public nuts, and drives me nuts.
“We have a solution to that, and it’s the Rwanda solution, and it’s and it’s painful, it’s painful to see people now copying our idea, Americans, Italians.
“And what this appalling Labour government should be doing is, instead of going off to Albania and being humiliated by Edi Rama, I was there, you know, asking, begging, Edi Rama, begging the Albanians for a Rwanda solution.
“We should do the Rwanda scheme. That is the way to fix illegal, that’s the way to fix the illegal cross-channel migration.”
And he insisted Britain must leave the European Convention on Human Rights. He said: “They should be getting out of the ECHR that actually doesn’t make much difference to to the to the small boats problem.”
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