[NO2ID press release sent on 9/3/26, with updates and additional references]
Responding to ID Minister Darren Jones’ statements to Parliament last week, [1] and an article in The Times today [2] detailing a “Cabinet revolt”, UK-wide non-partisan campaign NO2ID [3] warned of the Government’s imminent tone-deaf relaunch and repositioning of digital ID cards in the midst of an international crisis.
Phil Booth, NO2ID National Coordinator said:
“The only times the UK successfully introduced ID cards was in WWI and WWII. [4] The Blair Government tried again after 9/11 and, having claimed they’d stop Islamist terrorism, Tony helped his mate George start a war in Iraq. Now in 2026 he’s backing his buddies Ben and Donald on Iran. [5]
“Having announced the Blair government-in-exile’s digital ID cards scheme last September with no mandate, [6] prompting widespread derision – and with his first ID Minister just having resigned in disgrace – Mr Starmer is taking another shot, this time spinning Blair’s ID cards as the panacea for our broken public services. [7] Don’t mention the war, Keir!
“When people found out ‘non compulsory’ ID cards [8] really mean lifelong tracking and a politically controlled government IT system determining if you are ‘valid’ or not, the public rejected them last time. The cards might be government code on your phone this time, but the effect is the same and the British people will reject them again.”
– ENDS –
Notes for editors
1) Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister Darren Jones gave oral evidence to the Home Affairs Committee on ‘New digital forms of ID’ on 3 March 2026. In response to Question 147, the Minister responsible for ID said:
Robbie Moore: Do we have a date yet for when the consultation will go live?
Darren Jones: I am hoping that it will be next week. The actual day is moving around a little bit, but it should be next week.
2) https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/keir-starmer-digital-id-cabinet-hkcgc6qpl – The Times, 9 March 2026
3) Originally founded in 2004, NO2ID is the independent UK-wide non-partisan campaign against ID cards and the Database State. This post is a more extensively referenced copy of today’s press release – for ongoing and up to date information on the government’s digital ID scheme, see https://www.no2id.uk/news/ or subscribe to NO2ID’s Substack https://no2id.substack.com/
4) Of the 20 independent states that existed in Europe after WWII that are now members of the EU, ID cards were initially introduced / forcibly imposed in 18 of them under Nazi or Soviet occupation, or a ‘homegrown’ dictator. Churchill’s post-war Government abolished WWII ID cards in 1952, having imposed them in the UK during the war – as well as in Cyprus and Malta, which were at that point British colonies.
5) https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15623903/Tony-Blair-rebukes-Keir-Starmer-not-backing-Trump-Iran.html – Daily Mail, 7 March 2026
6) Even the CEO of Palantir UK went on the record last October, stating that Palantir “won’t participate in the market engagement” for digital ID cards because it has no “clear public mandate”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYh5sq51DiM [transcript]
7) ID Minister Darren Jones gave a speech on 20 January 2026 in which he laid out his “Move fast. Fix things” plan to “rewire” Whitehall, ‘fix’ the public services, and build a new digital state based on the government’s “foundational” digital ID system. More detail here: https://www.no2id.uk/2026/move-fast-fix-things-and-clean-up/
8) In the 2000s, while the Blair Government initially consulted on compulsory “entitlement cards”, they said they would drop the compulsory element while admitting they were trying to introduce ID cards. When the Identity Cards Act was passed in 2006, the law stated that being put on the Home Office’s lifelong ID cards database (the ‘National Identity Register’) was compulsory, if you wanted to have a passport.
As NO2ID’s General Secretary wrote in 2009, so-called “voluntary” ID cards – conceived by civil servant Sylvanus Vivian in 1934 – are designed to have a “parasitic vitality”:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/libertycentral/2009/jun/30/idcards-terrorism
In the 2020s, digital ID will be compulsory for Right to Work checks and, over time, to access services and benefits your taxes have paid for. While details of the proposed digital ID itself are yet to be determined, millions are already being forced to biometrically verify themselves in the One Login ‘funnel trap’, and are being assigned ‘shadow’ Accounts – a lifelong, compulsory government record which some may not even know they have:
https://www.no2id.uk/2026/no-u-turn-on-the-government-account-youll-be-forced-to-have/
For further information or for immediate or future interview, please contact Phil Booth, NO2ID National Coordinator, on coordinator@no2id.uk or 07974 230 839
