Chris Hazzard MP: ‘Digital ID proposal is misguided, unacceptable, and clearly absurd’
Sinn Féin MP for South Down Chris Hazzard details his party’s opposition to the British Government’s proposal to introduce a mandatory digital ID “by the end of the parliament”.
Sinn Féin adamantly opposes Keir Starmer MP’s proposal to introduce a mandatory digital ID which would fundamentally undermine the rights of Irish citizens in the North.
Historically, attempts by various British governments from the 1950s onwards to reintroduce a mandatory ID card have failed.
Ahead of the 2024 Westminster election and again upon entering government in July 2024, the British Labour Party had explicitly ruled out such a policy before performing a volte-face in September 2025.
Irish citizens
Most egregiously, the Starmer administration failed to engage with the Irish Government or locally elected ministers at Stormont in advance of announcing the proposal.
As an Irish citizen living in the North of Ireland, the prospect of being required to hold a British national identity card to, in the words of Secretary of State Lisa Nandy MP, “prove your right to be here” is an anathema to me, my party, and thousands of people living here.
The parity of esteem principle underpins the Good Friday Agreement. Fundamentally, the mandatory enforcement of such a scheme would subvert that.
To echo the words of Uachtarán Shinn Féin, Mary Lou McDonald TD, any such proposal which would inhibit the rights of Irish citizens in the North is misguided, unacceptable, and clearly absurd.
Ineffectual
Ostensibly, the digital ID proposal has been presented by the British Government as a panacea to “combat illegal working”. In reality, it misinterprets the pull factors driving Britain’s inward migration, as well as the modus operandi of the shadow or informal economy.
Firstly, the informal economy is relatively small in comparison to European counterparts and is less of a pull factor for migrants than existing social networks. Secondly, those working in the informal economy are already ignoring employment legislation and are likely to continue to do so regardless of this proposed initiative.
Meanwhile, the scheme would subject millions of citizens, alongside legal migrants, to mandatory checks aimed at deterring a tiny minority of informal economy workers.
As such, the alleged rationale renders the scheme grossly disproportionate, ineffective, and economically inefficient.
Furthermore, such a system would duplicate the existing regime of mandatory digital ID (eVisa) already in operation for four million legal migrants. Similarly, within the formal (legal and regulated) economy, the proposed digital ID would duplicate the function of national insurance numbers.
Data protection
Additionally, the British state apparatus has a frankly unimpressive history of failing to secure personal data against cyberattacks or prevent major data breaches.
This is the same administration that, in 2022, inadvertently shared the personal information of 19,000 people, including those working for British military intelligence, seeking to escape Afghanistan with the newly established Taliban government.
In total, 14 major data breaches are known to have taken place across the British public service since 2020.
These, among other instances, do not inspire confidence in Britain’s ability to store and protect a figurative ‘Aladdin’s cave’ of high-value information, which could be vulnerable to various threat actors and poses a major risk to the individuals it concerns.
Political reality
Given the electoral headwinds facing the Labour Party, this proposal must instead be interpreted as an attempt to challenge Reform by mimicking its rhetoric on illegal working, and an accommodation of far-right discourse.
Labour must return to its roots and instead set its policy sights on the dynamics enabling Farage to exploit migration for political gain, not least the widening gap between rich and poor, and recognise the rights of Irish citizens in the North as determined by the Good Friday Agreement.
Chris Hazzard is the Sinn Féin MP for South Down
