📰 Digital ID for Children — Who’s Really Running Britain, Starmer or Blair?

From lies of ‘stopping the boats’, Digital ID for children shows how the plan has become a tool for state control.

Oct 11, 2025

When Digital ID was first floated, we were told it was about “stopping the boats.”
A supposedly clever way to track illegal migration and stop people working here unlawfully.

A few weeks ago, I called out that argument for what it is — nonsense.
(Digital ID hasn’t stopped illegal migration).

🌍 What’s Happened Elsewhere

Across Europe, Digital ID systems haven’t stopped illegal migration or illegal working.

France introduced a national digital ID in 2021 — yet still saw over 150,000 illegal border crossings last year, the highest in a decade.
Germany, with its eID card and employer verification system, continues to report thousands of illegal workers in construction and hospitality.
Even Sweden, often praised as a model of digital governance, has admitted digital ID hasn’t curbed illegal working or benefit fraud.

The evidence is clear:

Digital ID doesn’t stop illegal immigration — it just gives governments a bigger database.

🎯 Mission Creep in Action

And now, the goalposts have already moved.

This week, the government confirmed it will consult on extending Digital ID to children aged just 13 to 16.

Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper defended the move, saying “lots of 13-year-olds already have digital IDs.”

Meanwhile, a public petition against the scheme has attracted nearly three million signatures — a level of opposition that tells you how uneasy people already feel about this direction of travel.

Under the new proposal, Digital ID will become mandatory for anyone who wants to work by 2029 — a seismic change in how citizens interact with the state.

Starmer said this week:
“It means you can access your own money and make payments so much more easily than is available with others.”
Think about that. Why should any government system have anything to do with whether you can access your own money?

In a free society, that right should be absolute — not conditional on a state-issued credential.

🧠 The Return of Tony Blair

Let’s be honest — this isn’t just Starmer’s idea.
ID was Tony Blair’s obsession two decades ago, abandoned after huge public opposition and spiralling costs.

But it’s back — rebranded, repackaged, and actively promoted by Blair’s own Tony Blair Institute, which now calls Digital ID “the disruption the UK desperately needs.”

Earlier this year, in January 2025, the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change published a paper under that title. It argued that Britain must make digital identity a core part of national infrastructure — merging passports, driving licences, health records and more into a single verified system.

Fast forward a few months, and Keir Starmer is running with that exact vision.
The language, the justification, even the examples — from Estonia to India — mirror the Blair Institute’s blueprint almost word for word.

Their proposals go far beyond immigration checks. They envision a single digital wallet linking your passport, driving licence, health records, tax details and payments — effectively, a government-approved master key to your life.

The Blair Institute has also argued for a Digital ID tied to asylum and welfare reform, where anyone who works or claims benefits must use a verified digital identity to prove their legal status.

Sound familiar? It’s the same logic now being used by Starmer’s government.

So it’s fair to ask:

Who is really running the country — Keir Starmer or Tony Blair?

This wasn’t in Labour’s manifesto.
There was no mention of Digital ID becoming mandatory to work.
No mention of enrolling children.
And no public debate about whether the government should ever stand between you and your job, or your bank account.

🌐 From Migration Tool to Social Control

Digital ID is often presented as harmless — a modern convenience to “prove who you are.” But once such systems exist, they rarely stay limited to one purpose.

The same infrastructure built to track migration or employment easily extends to finance, healthcare, and daily life.

In China, the national ID is the foundation of its social-credit system, where citizens’ access to loans, travel, and education depends on state-monitored behaviour.
In India, the Aadhaar system collects fingerprints and iris scans for over a billion people — praised by Starmer this week as a “massive success.” Yet millions have been locked out of benefits when the tech fails.
In Canada, digital ID was used during the truckers’ protest to freeze bank accounts — showing how financial access can become a political tool.
Across Europe, new Digital ID “wallets” will link citizens’ official documents and online access under a single EU framework by 2026.

Each started small. Each expanded.

The logic is always the same: what begins as “identity verification” ends as “behavioural enforcement.”

💉 We’ve Been Here Before

If all this sounds familiar, it should.
We’ve already seen how temporary “public health measures” can morph into permanent systems of control.

During the pandemic, the government pushed vaccine passports for foreign travel, and to access nightclubs and events. Citizens were told these were essential to stop the spread of the virus.

Yet we now know the vaccines didn’t stop transmission, and those digital passes achieved little beyond normalising the idea that you needed state permission to participate in everyday life.

Digital ID is the logical next step in that same mindset — where personal freedom is treated as a privilege granted by the state, not a right you inherently possess.

🚨 The Real Risk

Britain’s version might sound voluntary today — but when the right to work, earn, or access your own money depends on a state-issued credential, you’ve already crossed a line.

The threat isn’t theoretical. It’s structural.
Once the mechanism exists, it can be tightened or repurposed at any time.

Step by step, we’re moving from “Right to Work” to “Permission to Work.”
From “proof of identity” to proof of compliance.
And now, from “stopping the boats” to tagging the kids.

📊 Final thought

Digital ID is not about efficiency.
It’s about control — and the more we normalise government-gated access to everyday life, the harder it becomes to reverse.

There was and is no mandate for this.

✍️ Jamie Jenkins

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