The i Paper understands some in Government hope the move will help pave the way for an expanded one-in, one-out migrant returns deal with France.
The controversial policy, unveiled by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer yesterday, will mean anyone who wants to work in the UK must use a document on their smartphone to prove their immigration status.
Paris, and many other countries, have long called for such a policy to reduce the so-called “pull factor” driving people to try to enter the UK.
On a call with ministers on Friday, there was “mass unhappiness” from the Labour parliamentary party.
The policy will require primary legislation to be passed before it can be introduced.
Those on the Labour benches who have been calling for action on small boat crossings told The i Paper the announcement had not struck the right note.
“It feels like a baby step, over a super long time, and sadly the narrative has not been owned by the Government,” another MP said.
“We could make the enthusiastic argument that bureaucracy makes accessing appropriate support a class-based divide and shuts out those in greatest need of support and full fat digital ID would unlock this. But instead, we’re having this civil liberties fight over nothing,” they said.
Even those broadly in favour of the policy said that its effectiveness was dependent on the details of how it is designed.
“Obviously, the devil is in the detail and it needs to be done right. I know the media focus is on the immigration stuff but on the possibilities I think it could be great.”
“It helps that the public support it,” they added, referring to consistent polling suggesting adults are in favour of such a scheme. “The feeling is only the crank [party] leaders are against it for flawed libertarian reasons.”
Stella Creasy, the MP for Walthamstow, said: “In a time when we’re struggling to find the money to invest in tackling child poverty it’s hard to see the case for spending billions to create a new Government IT project, especially when it’s unclear how it does anything more than the checks that already happen on illegal working.
The plans will see ID cards being stored on smartphones in the same way as contactless payment cards, or the NHS App, currently are.
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Cabinet minister Lisa Nandy said the digital document will only be needed as proof of the right to work.
Georgina Sturge, of Oxford University’s Migration Observatory, said the effectiveness of the scheme in clamping down illegal working would depend on how well it is enforced.
And said the policy would be central to the government’s plans to expand its one-in, one-out asylum deal with France.
“So it’s possible that announcing this could make some difference to the relationship with the French over this issue and maybe that can have some kind of impact.”
“We don’t know whether there is going to be a different system of enforcement for this and a lot of whether it works will depend on the implementation.
“You could still have a situation with employers that are not currently complying with the current system. It is possible that the same people just won’t check the right to work for employers, even if digital ID becomes a thing.”
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