Lib Dems oppose mandatory ID cards
Speaking in support of the Liberal Democrat’s position of not supporting a mandatory ID scheme that the Labour government wishes to introduce, Lib Dem Parliamentary Spokesperson for Birmingham Ladywood, Lee Dargue, said:
“Here we go again. A Labour government seeking to grab people’s data and force people to take up a mandatory scheme of ID cards. Tony Blair tried this, and thanks to Liberal Democrats in government, the scheme was eventually abandoned. Keir Starmer’s Blair tribute act won’t suffice.
“Digital platforms can be helpful. But where people cannot, or do not wish to access such platforms, it is not the government’s place to enforce their use. We’ve fought against this authoritarian Labour approach before, and won, and will do again.
“Knee-jerk, cheap gimmicks and harshly worded statements from this Labour government on immigration are embarrassing and beneath our politics. Liberal Democrats are offering solutions to the problem of our broken immigration system. Labour is simply trying to trump Reform on who can sound the hardest on immigration whilst offering no real solutions.”
Victoria Collins MP (Harpenden & Berkhamsted), Lib Dem Spokesperson for Science, Innovation and Technology, tweeted the following statement:
“Liberal Democrats cannot support a mandatory digital ID where people are forced to turn over their private data just to go about their daily lives.
“People shouldn’t be turned into criminals just because they can’t have a digital ID, or choose not to. This will be especially worrying to millions of older people, people living in poverty and disable people – who are more likely to be digitally excluded.”