By many measures Tony Blair did more to undo Britain than any previous prime minister. His Equality Act laid the groundwork for our pernicious diversity industry. His expansion of higher education saddled a generation of young people with useless degrees and mountains of debt. His devolution reforms acted as an accelerator, not a brake, on Britain’s break-up. And you will have your own view of his martial adventures in Iraq.
But there was one thing he absolutely got right. And, sadly, because his name is so utterly linked with this idea, many of my right-leaning friends reflexively dismiss it as a Very Bad Thing.
I’m talking about mandatory Identity Cards. Next week marks the anniversary of their abolition, not by one of our worst wartime leaders, but one of our greatest. It was Churchill who, in 1952 made good his campaign promise to “Set the People Free”. ID cards were seen as a throwback to the days when our islands faced German invasion. An emergency measure to ensure people were who they said they were when it came to rationing and conscription.
But now Britain faces a different kind of invasion across the English Channel. Tens of thousands of undocumented males make landfall here every year. The numbers fluctuate but, without a serious plan of deterrence, many more will come. Their costly presence (£4m a day) in some of our most vulnerable communities is a running sore for social cohesion and, as we are increasingly aware, a threat to women’s safety.
Labour, which last year ruled out ID cards after Blair said it was time to revive his plan for their introduction, looks clueless on this. It made a big show this week of repatriating illegal migrants on a chartered aircraft. There were 47 on board.
But if Labour thinks Monday’s photo-opportunity will draw support from a Reform party surging in the polls, then it is seriously mistaken. By focusing on deportations it serves only to remind voters of how bad things are.
Tony Blair championed ID cards in this country
PA
And not just because of small boat crossings. Last month a previously confidential report suggested that one in 12 people living in London do so illegally. Most didn’t come on small boats, but on work, study or visitor schemes. When their visas expire, they stay. And as the Home Office confessed - again this week - they work in nail bars, car washes, convenience stores, “barber shops” and as delivery drivers.
Nationwide, anything up to two million may be in the UK with no lawful right to be here.
In sport, it’s often useful to ask a simple question. What’s the thing my opponent least wants me to do? So what’s the one thing the illegal migrant industry fears most? Or let me put it another way. What is the one thing we know illegal migrants do before they attempt to smuggle themselves into our country? Answer: they seek to destroy any proof of their identity. Having burned their papers, many simply lie about their age; so they might be treated more leniently as “minors”.
Why do migrants pass through France en route to the UK without claiming asylum there? The French say it’s because they have ID cards and we don’t. It’s no coincidence that Britain has more illegal migrants than any other European country, while almost every European country has ID cards.
The former Home Secretary David Blunkett said that when Blair briefly introduced ID cards (15,000 were actually issued before the scheme was scrapped by David Cameron) there was an impact on illegal migration. Lord Blunkett recently told the Daily Mail: “The gangs realised it wasn't worth their while to traffic people into the UK if migrants found they were unable to work or claim benefits without an ID card, and thus would be liable to deportation.”
He’s right. Benefit fraud in Britain is running at more than £7bn a year. Worse, we have no idea who is coming and going. After Brexit (which I voted for and support still), it was officially assumed there were 3m EU citizens living here. The number was actually 5m. How can you run a country like this?
I know my friends on the right will say that ID cards, like Blair, are on the wrong side of history. They will point to the cost, the risk of data leaks, the slow march to a Chinese-style social credit system, where the state knows too much about its citizenry. Boris Johnson even likens an ID card system to every child having a barcode tattooed on them from birth.
But then Boris also oversaw an increase in migration unprecedented in the entirety of British history. Our population is expected to grow by 5m by 2032, entirely because of immigration. The drain on public services, the strain on roads, rail, hospitals, the courts and - most of all housing - is and will be immense.
In short, we are facing an emergency. A dire threat. An existential wave of migration that will wreak changes - has already wrought changes to Britain - akin to wartime exigence.
The world has changed since Blair’s ID cards were ditched. We are now much more used to sharing our personal data, not least via social media. I know many friends will say there is a difference between choosing to give up our privacy and an obligation to have an ID card.
That there is no telling where the surveillance state might take us, armed with facial recognition cameras and the ability to deny access to the digital services on which we all now depend. But, I repeat, Britain faces no greater long-term threat to its survival as a viable state than uncontrolled migration. ID cards are sub-optimal. But the alternative is far worse.
