British ID scheme needed, says report

THE ID registration system for EU citizens in the UK after Brexit should also be rolled out to British citizens to avoid another Windrush scandal, a think tank has suggested.

Extending the documentation programme for the 3.6 million Europeans living here to everyone else is among a sweeping overhaul of the immigration system recommended in a new report to strengthen the UK border.

Britain leaving the EU is the perfect time to come up with new ways of controlling national borders, the paper, published today by Policy Exchange suggests.

The idea of a national ID system for British citizens has been controversial for some time, with many people opposing it on civil liberties grounds.

A £5bn national identity card scheme was introduced by the last Labour government in 2006 but a Bill to scrap it was the first legislation introduced by Theresa May when she became home secretary in 2010.

EU citizens already in the UK will have to pay £65 and join a registration scheme if they wish to stay in Britain after the end of the transition period on December 31, 2020 under changes announced by the current Home Secretary Sajid Javid.

In the report, David Goodhart, Policy Exchange’s head of demography, immigration and integration, suggests that the scheme should be widened to Britons, initially voluntarily.

He said: “We strongly recommend reopening the debate about ID management to reassure people that we know who is in the country, for how long, and what their entitlements are.”