Brits 'will sacrifice privacy for efficiency', Blair claims as he pushes for digital ID cards and facial recognition

31 January 2025, 18:34

Tony Blair has claimed that British people will accept less privacy in exchange for greater government efficiency, as he pushed for national digital ID cards to be rolled out.

The former Prime Minister who is said never to have had a mobile phone while in Downing Street, has since become an ardent supporter of using technology to improve the efficiency of the state.

Starmer, the first Labour leader since Sir Tony to have won a general election, has promised to embrace the technology and turn the UK into an "AI superpower".

His predecessor's think tank, the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, is thought to be influential upon the Government.

"You've got to reorder the Government around this technology revolution," Sir Tony told The Times newspaper.

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He added: "You should be able to have a state that is smaller, more strategic and providing greater efficiency at lower cost. That is the holy grail of governing, which people have always aspired to. Technology is the instrument that allows you to do it."

Starmer must also "take a firm decision that we're going for digital ID", the ex-PM said.

Ministers are already launching a digital "wallet" which will allow people to store driving licences and other forms of ID on their smartphones.

Science Secretary Peter Kyle has said "nothing is off the table" in terms of what digital versions of Government-issued documents could be stored in the new app, which is launching in June.

But Blair said ministers must go further, telling The Times the Government must be prepared for a "big debate coming down the line" on the future on digital ID.

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He added: "This is is the political argument people should have - which is: how much privacy are you prepared to trade for efficiency? That's the real question around technology and public services.

"My view is that people are actually prepared to trade quite a lot."

Among the applications for digital ID could be processing the "vast flow of people coming through our borders", Blair said.

He added that identifying people for medical treatment and finding out whether migrants are "not entitled to be here" to prevent them claiming benefits were among the things it could be used for.

"It's sending a signal that there's no point in thinking you're going to come here and disappear into a kind of grey economy," he told the Times.

Bringing in digital IDs will help ministers get tough on populism, he also suggested.

"It will also flush out a lot of people who want to talk about issues like immigration or benefit fraud but don't actually will the means to get to the end," Sir Tony said.