Can I See Your BritCard?

To crack down on illegal immigration, Downing Street is considering using an identification card app.

Senior No 10 figures are said to be examining proposals for a new BritCard which would display a person’s right to live, work and rent in the UK.

Several cabinet members, including technology secretary Peter Kyle and cabinet office minister Pat McFadden, have endorsed the proposal, which would retain people’s identities on smartphones and attempt to combat benefit fraud by connecting the card to government data.

Advocates think the scheme will send the message that Britain is not ‘a soft touch’ on illegal migration and will decrease the ‘pull’ factor, which many European countries blame for the ongoing small boats crisis, The Times reports.

Britain remains the only European country without an ID card system, with Tony Blair’s famous endeavour to introduce one collapsed in 2011, after the coalition government pulled the plug on it.

Additionally, it is planned that the app would be able to connect other services, such as buying passports, showing driver’s licenses and national insurance numbers, and providing NHS services.

Labour Together, a think tank run by Sir Keir Starmer’s chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, from 2017 to 2020, has collated plans for the card and sent them to Downing Street.

They include a requirement to ‘show’ the ID when renting a property or starting a new job, with the system automatically checking their right to work or rent against government records.

Existing documents to check identity can be easily forged, potentially deceiving landlords or prospective employers. 

According to the proposals, a mockup of the app displays a screen with a person’s name and face, along with his driving licence, employment and rental status, and choices to disclose his identity or age.

The report, published on Friday, urges the Prime Minister to make digital identity a ‘top prime ministerial priority’ and start a ‘fundamental transformation in the way British citizens interact with the government’.

It points to a poll which suggests 80 per cent of the public back the implementation of digital right-to-work credentials, with just under one in three believing it would serve as a deterrent against people entering the country illegally.

The report said that those who did not want to have a digital ID card on their phone would be allowed to carry a physical one instead.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has placed herself in opposition to some of her colleagues, including many from the ‘Red Wall’ wave of Labour MPs, with Home Office sources describing her position as ‘nuanced’.

Sir Keir Starmer has admitted the public has ‘every right to be angry’ about the issue after more than a thousand migrants made the journey in a single day for the first time this year.

Home Office data revealed 1,194 migrants arrived in 18 boats on Saturday.

But Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch described Sir Keir’s words as ‘rubbish’, claiming that even Defence Secretary John Healey had acknowledged ministers had ‘lost control’ of the borders.

Saturday’s figures were the first time daily crossings topped a thousand in 2025, and prompted Mr Healey to claim Britain had ‘lost control’ over the last five years, implicating the former Tory government.

Writing on social media site X on Monday, the Prime Minister said: ‘You have every right to be angry about small boat crossings.

‘I’m angry too. We are ramping up our efforts to smash the people smuggling gangs at source.’

He claimed hundreds of boats and engines had been ‘seized’, raids on illegal working were up, and ‘almost 30,000 people’ had been returned.

But Mrs Badenoch hit back, responding: ‘Rubbish! Even the Defence Secretary admits the govt has ‘lost control’ of our borders.’

Small boat arrivals are ‘up 95 per cent from this point in 2023’, she said, and claimed ministers had ‘scrapped the only viable deterrent’: the previous Conservative government’s Rwanda plan.

Sir Keir had earlier insisted the Rwanda plan ‘didn’t deter anybody’ after his decision to scrap it was highlighted while he visited Glasgow for a major defence announcement.

He added: ‘I’m not up for gimmicks. I’m up for the hard work of working with partners, enhancing the powers that law enforcement have, in my determination to take down the gangs that are running this vile trade.’

Saturday’s crossings brought the provisional annual total of migrants who have made the voyage to 14,811.

This is 42 per cent higher than the same point last year (10,448) and 95 per cent up from the same point in 2023 (7,610).

It is still lower than the highest daily count of 1,305 arrivals since data started in 2018, which was recorded on September 3, 2022.

The real key to stopping boat migrants is to stop giving them complimentary housing, benefits, healthcare and food. An ID scheme is just to keep people in check, even native UK citizens, and it’s not going to do much. People just haven’t got it yet – our government want these boat people on our shores, it’s all part of their plan. This country is getting more and more sinister by the day – Big Brother is watching you and he wants complete control.

However, don’t forget that Big Brother already has partial control – they have all your details and are now attempting to get access to your bank accounts. You don’t have any human rights anymore, but our government bangs on about illegals having human rights, but the natives have scarcely any.

It’s easy – if they land on our shores with no genuine identification, then they should be shipped straight back from whence they came. Simple!