Welsh Labour MP Stephen Kinnock has said that the Labour Party will "look carefully" about the introduction of ID cards. The Aberavon MP is his party's spokesperson on immigration.
Speaking to Matt Chorley on Times Radio the MP for Aberavon said that they would be useful for understanding the population in the UK. He said: "I think they should certainly be on the table. It needs to be properly reviewed and discussed. It was something that I think a previous Labour Government got very close to introducing them for various reasons it didn't come off"
Under Tony Blair Labour attempted to introduce ID cards but this became incredibly controversial. The cards being linked to state entitlements and this, along with wider civil liberty concerns, led to significant opposition. Legislation for compulsory ID cards was passed in 2006 but in 2009 Alan Johnson (home secretary)announced they would not be compulsory for UK citizens. The plans were binned in 2010 by the coalition.
Read more: Plaid Cymru MS suspended pending investigation following 'alleged breach of code of conduct'
Mr Kinnock said that the current system is not sustainable. He told Times Radio: "I thought it was extraordinary in the wake of Brexit, that everybody said, oh, there are three million EU citizens in the UK, it turned out there were five million. You know, it's just simply extraordinary that we had two million more people in our country than we thought we did.
"That is just not sustainable and a registration process and system needs to be looked at very, very carefully indeed. And that is such certainly something that Labour is reviewing and we'll be looking at very carefully."
However speaking on Radio 4 shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper was less committal. Where asked if ID cards were being considered as a solution to cracking down on working without permission in the UK, she replied: “No, I think the issue is there is no proper employment enforcement, that got weaker and weaker.
“If you have people either working illegally or being exploited as well, there is no proper employment enforcement, so we would bring in stronger employment enforcement with proper standards in place, as well as stronger action to crack down on criminal gangs and set out measures to tackle the problem.”
Read more:
