Minister rejects Blair’s call for ID cards to control migration

Tackling illegal immigration is one of the major challenges facing the new government.

So far this year, more than 13,000 have crossed the Channel in small boats.

The figure is higher than numbers for the same period last year, although in 2023 as a whole there was a drop compared to 2022.

The previous Conservative government had hoped to send people who arrived in the UK illegally to Rwanda to deter small boat crossings.

However, no migrants were sent to the country under the scheme before the Tories lost power.

On Saturday Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said the Rwanda scheme was “dead and buried”.

Labour had branded the plan an expensive “gimmick” and pledged to scrap it.

Instead the party has promised to set up a new Border Security Command, bringing together Border Force officials, police and intelligence agencies, and use count-terror powers to tackle people-smuggling gangs.

The last Labour government got as far as issuing the first ID cards to UK citizens and 15,000 were in circulation when the scheme was scrapped by the coalition government in 2011 and the database destroyed.

Compulsory ID cards for foreign nationals were issued to about 200,000 people before being rebranded as biometric residence permits.

Lord Blunkett, who launched the ID cards plan when he was home secretary, claimed they had already started to make a difference to illegal immigration when they were scrapped.

Earlier this year, he told The Daily Mail, external: “The gangs realised it wasn’t worth their while to traffic people into the UK if migrants found they were unable to work or claim benefits without an ID card, and thus would be liable to deportation.”