Keir Starmer savaged over ‘large fats socialist desires’ in digital ID takedown | Politics | News | EUROtoday

Labour can not resist “its big, fat socialist dreams” that can radically reshape the state’s relationship with atypical folks, critics blasted.

Plans for digital ID playing cards will “fundamentally shift the balance of power between citizen and state”, the shadow science, innovation and expertise secretary, Julia Lopez, claimed.

Labour’s Science, Innovation and Technology Secretary, Liz Kendall, claimed in a Parliamentary debate that the controversial scheme will “offer greater security and actually greater control over your own data”.

It confirms the mission creep of the scheme, which had been initially proposed as a technique of combating unlawful working. But is now being widened to incorporate different Government providers.

Ms Kendall mentioned information was “much less likely to be lost or stolen” and continued: “Privacy and security will be hardwired into the system from the start.”

Ms Kendall mentioned a buyer could be “able to prove you’re over 18 without even showing your exact birthday”.

She additionally mentioned the brand new digital ID would “deliver greater fairness by showing exactly who has the right to work here in the UK”.

But Ms Lopez instructed the Commons: “He didn’t announce it here in this House but at a love-in of the progressive left, sponsored by Labour Together, and haunted by the ghost of Tony Blair.

“The justification was his personal catastrophic failure on migration. He is aware of it will not cease the boats, and when Brits are pressured to have ID as unlawful migration continues unabated, it’s going to merely verify fears of a two-tier society, fuelling the division and conspiracy theories that he so arrogantly claims that he’s the antidote to.”

Ms Lopez later added: “This artful scheme was not in Labour’s manifesto. Even the Cabinet suppose this entire factor is a fantasy.”

She told MPs: “This isn’t about luddite versus modernisers. This is about the truth that Labour can not resist its large fats socialist desires – centralised databases, state mandation, large cash, the exclusion of private-sector experience. Why create this honeypot for hackers?”

Responding, Science, Innovation and Technology Secretary Liz Kendall said: “Well, that’s positively the primary time I’ve been known as a ‘large fats socialist’.”

Ms Kendall had earlier announced plans for a consultation on the Government’s plans “by the tip of this yr”.

Defending the controversial scheme, the minister claimed Government systems which are not joined up leave people “feeling like they seem to be a quantity on an inventory, not a human being with a life”, as she made a fresh pitch for digital ID.

She continued: “I’m certain many honourable members will know this can be a frustratingly comparable story – they’re handed from one particular person to a different, requested to repeat their story and supply primary data time and time once more. That they’re made to suit right into a system, moderately than the system working for them, which in the end leaves them feeling like they seem to be a quantity on an inventory, not a human being with a life.”

Ms Kendall described a new system as a “digital key that unlocks higher, extra joined-up and efficient public providers”.

She added that the Government intended to “study from” different international locations comparable to Denmark, Finland and Estonia.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer insisted digital ID playing cards have been wanted to stop migrants from working within the UK’s booming black financial system.

But critics and privateness campaigners concern it could possibly be expanded to cowl a wider vary of Government providers.