MPs urge Labour to resolve real life issues, not digital ID 'vanity project'

GOVERNMENT plans to introduce digital identity cards have been dismissed as a “vanity project” that will leave people in rural communities out in the cold.

- by GUY HENDERSON

Demonstrators at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool carry a coffin as they protest against the Government's plans to introduce a digital ID and farmer's inheritance tax.

(Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

Newton Abbot's Liberal Democrat MP Martin Wrigley is demanding answers from the Government about the ID card scheme which was unveiled at the Labour Party conference.

He said: “There are many unanswered questions and it clearly won't do what the Government is suggesting it will.

“Illegal employers won't ask to see a digital ID in the same way that they ignore current methods for checking a candidate's right to work in the UK.

“This scheme will not only cost a huge amount of taxpayer’s money, which is already stretched, but it also risks disenfranchising a large number of people”

He said many areas of the South West, including the Newton Abbot constituency, were struggling with ‘digital inclusion’ due to issues such as a lack of fast broadband.