- UK PM Keir Starmer met Nandan Nilekani to discuss a digital ID system like Aadhaar
- Starmer’s office said the UK will create its own digital ID
- Support for a digital ID has dropped in the UK, with all Opposition parties opposing it
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer landed in Mumbai yesterday, and among the first people he met was Nandan Nilekani, co-founder of Infosys and chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India. The reason: a plan to roll out a digital ID system in the UK on the lines of Aadhaar.
The Guardian reported that Starmer's spokesperson said his meeting with Nilekani was not about a potential commercial arrangement with Infosys, and that the UK government aimed to build its own version of the scheme.
Support for digital ID cards has plummeted in the UK and all Opposition parties have said they would oppose the scheme. The UK Prime Minister, however, is upbeat about his plan and points to India's "massive success". "We are going to a country, India, where they've already done ID and made a massive success of it. So one of the meetings I will be having is about ID, in relation to that," he told the media before leaving for Mumbai.
"There is a case to be made about the benefits of voluntary ID into other areas, and obviously, we need to make that case. I don't know how many times the rest of you have had to look in the bottom drawer for three bills when you want to get your kids into school or apply for this or apply for that, it drives me to frustration," he said.
According to Starmer's spokesperson, the UK system does not plan to use biometric data for the digital ID at this point.
Last month, Starmer announced that British citizens and permanent residents will need a mandatory digital identification card to get work. He said this will help reduce unauthorised immigration by making it harder for people to work in the underground economy. The digital ID, he said, will also make it simpler for people to access healthcare, welfare, childcare and other public services. "You will not be able to work in the United Kingdom if you do not have a digital ID. It's as simple as that," he said.
Since World War II, Britain has not had compulsory identity cards for ordinary citizens. Civil campaigners argue that such an ID encroaches upon personal liberty and puts private information at risk. The UK's former Prime Minister Tony Blair had tried to introduce biometric ID cards, but opposition from the public and Parliament derailed the plan.
"There's always been this feeling that Britain is not a so-called 'Papers, please' society, in contrast to continental Europe and other countries where ID cards are very common," said Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London, as quoted in an Associated Press report.
"It has to be said, however, that given one is forced in some ways to prove one's ID in myriad circumstances, both in contact with the government and in contact with the private sector in all sorts of ways, that actually a digital ID card would be quite useful."
