YVETTE Cooper has defended proposals which could extend digital identification to children as young as 13.
The Foreign Secretary insisted the “standardised” system was “the right way forward” as she sought to reassure the public amid a wave of opposition to the scope of the proposals.
Keir Starmer is seeking to widen his plans for use of the technology, which ministers had said would be used primarily to tackle illegal migration, to include management of public services like benefits and bills payments.
In its response to a petition against the measures, which has been signed by more than 2.8 million people, the Government said the system would cover everyone aged 16 or over but “we will consider through consultation if this should be age 13 and over”.
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Speaking to broadcasters on Friday morning, Cooper said similar forms of identification are already widely used and suggested the plans would offer consistency.
“Everybody has forms of digital ID, don’t they, now?” she said on LBC.
“I mean, we all have different ways of having to prove who we are.”
“Lots of 13-year-olds already do [have a form of digital ID] and what the department is going to be consulting on is exactly how that should be taken forward.
“I do think that this is the right way forward, to have this standardised process now, and it’s something that we had been already setting out for people who come to work from abroad.”
During his trip to India this week, Starmer praised the country’s Aadhaar digital ID system, which is far more extensive than the plans initially announced for the UK and involves the storing of biometric data, as a “massive success”.
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The scheme is deeply controversial in India and campaigners have linked its role in the country's welfare system to deaths by starvation.
Starmer signalled Britain could use the technology for services like banking, pointing to New Delhi’s scheme as an example, and said ministers must “make the case” for the “huge benefits” the scheme could offer.
No 10 said Britain’s system would not necessarily copy India’s biometric data usage and signalled the UK scheme would be run by the public sector.
