The United Kingdom is planning to require digital identification cards for all workers to stem the flow of illegal immigrants entering the country, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced on Friday.

“This government will make a new free-of-charge digital ID mandatory for the right to work by the end of this Parliament,” he said at the Global Progress Action Summit in London. “Let me spell that out: You will not be able to work in the United Kingdom if you do not have digital ID. It’s as simple as that.”

Recommended Stories

• US foreign aid will reorient to Ukraine defense, competing with China, as USAID dissolves
• Russia and Iran agree to $25 billion deal to build multiple nuclear power plants in Iran
• Oct. 7, two years on: A watershed moment, but Israel is no stranger to war

Proponents of digital ID cards cast the move as a way to secure Britain’s borders and solve the country’s asylum crisis.

“I know you’re worried about the level of illegal migration into this country. Digital ID is another measure to make it tougher to work illegally here, making our borders more secure,” Starmer wrote on X. “Ours is a fairer Britain, built on change, not division.”

The announcement has already been met with fierce opposition from critics who argue the mandatory digital ID cards will only infringe on citizens’ privacy.

A petition on the U.K. Parliament’s website opposing digital ID has received over 1 million signatures, exceeding well over the benchmark of 100,000 signatures that compels the legislative body to consider the petition for a floor debate in the near future.

“We think this would be a step towards mass surveillance and digital control, and that no one should be forced to register with a state-controlled ID system. We oppose the creation of any national ID system,” the petition states.

The Labour Party instituted a digital ID system nearly two decades ago, also over concerns about migrant workers. It was scrapped in 2010 after the Tories and Liberal Democrats came to power.

Rupert Lowe, an independent member of Parliament, said he led a letter signed by members across both sides of the political aisle, vowing to oppose Starmer’s new ID scheme vigorously.

“We urge you to abandon these plans immediately,” the letter reads. “At the very least, you must commit to bringing any proposal before Parliament for full scrutiny and a free vote — and to fully consulting the public before attempting to impose such a drastic measure on a reluctant country. The British people do not want this, and the British people do not need this.”

LONDON MAYOR CALLS TRUMP ‘RACIST,’ ‘SEXIST,’ AND ‘ISLAMOPHOBIC’ AFTER PRESIDENT’S CRITICISM

The Labour government said citizens are not required to carry their digital IDs in public, nor will they be asked to produce one, but the cards will be mandatory for getting a job. The IDs are expected to be accessed on smartphones, although the government is working out details to accommodate people who don’t own smartphones.

Starmer has vowed to cut net migration, as the U.K. has been struggling in recent years to halt illegal immigrants crossing the English Channel from mainland Europe. In 2024, an estimated 948,000 migrants arrived in the country to stay at least one year. About 517,000 people left, bringing the net migration figure down to 431,000 from 860,000 in December 2023.