Leading cross-party condemnation of Labour’s digital ID plans
Green MP leads cross-party condemnation of Labour’s digital ID plans
Green MP for Brighton Pavilion Siân Berry is leading cross-party condemnation of the Government’s plans for mandatory digital ID cards with a motion that warns against the growth of checkpoint Britain.
The Early Day Motion (EDM), calls on the Government to scrap its plans to introduce a mandatory digital ID scheme for all workers.
Supported by Liberal Democrat, SNP, Conservative, Independent and other MPs, the EDM states that mandatory ID is fundamentally at odds with British values and civil liberties, would risk ushering in an era of mass-surveillance, put personal data at risk of cyberattacks, and contribute to the digital exclusion of certain groups including older people.
In response to a statement in Parliament on the proposals, Siân asked the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, Liz Kendall, if she will instead follow the lead of “the Churchill Government of 1952, who considered the abolition of ID cards an important symbol of a society that trusted its citizens.”
Siân made reference to the “fighting Yorkshireman” Harry Willcock was the last person in the UK to be prosecuted for refusing to produce an ID card. When stopped by the police and asked for his ID card, he refused, saying “I am against this sort of thing.”
Nearly three million people have now signed a parliamentary petition against the proposals.
Siân Berry, Green MP for Brighton Pavilion said:
“Combined with Labour’s alarming new restrictions on the right to protest freely, a mandatory digital ID scheme represents an enormous threat to our civil liberties. MPs from a range of parties share my strong values on fundamental civil liberties.
“The Government should listen to the millions of people who rightly oppose this plan and seriously consider the many dangers it poses to basic rights, particularly for marginalised groups.”
Since it was launched on Monday, the MPs who have so far supported Siân’s Early Day Motion are:
- Zarah Sultana MP for Coventry South
- Manuela Perteghella MP for Stratford-on-Avon
- Chris Law MP for Dundee Central
- Sorcha Eastwood MP for Lagan Valley
- Sir Gavin Williamson MP for Stone, Great Wyrley and Penkridge
- Shockat Adam MP for Leicester South
- Rupert Lowe MP Great Yarmouth
- Christine Jardine MP for Edinburgh West
- Robin Swann MP for South Antrim
- Jim Shannon MP for Strangford
- Diane Abbott MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington
- Iqbal Mohamed MP for Dewsbury and Batley
- Liz Jarvis MP for Eastleigh
- Dave Doogan MP for Angus and Perthshire Glens
- James McMurdock for South Basildon and East Thurrock
- Andrew George MP for St Ives
- Alex Easton MP for North Down
- Carla Denyer MP for Bristol Central
- Graham Leadbitter MP for Moray West, Nairn and Strathspey
- Robert Jenrick MP for Newark
- Pete Wishart MP for Perth and Kinross-shire
Read the Early Day Motion in full