Majority of Labour members back digital ID card rollout, poll reveals

A majority of Labour members want to see the government introduce a digital ID card system with less than a third opposed, exclusive polling for LabourList reveals.

The poll, conducted by Survation, found that 57% of members surveyed want to see the government introduce such a scheme, while 30% said the government should not roll out digital ID cards.

Members who joined the party before 2010 were most likely to support the policy (65% in favour with 23% opposed), while those who have been members since 2015 were the most against (45% in favour with 38% opposed).

Almost three-quarters (74%) of those who backed Keir Starmer in the 2020 leadership election supported digital IDs (with 16% against), while almost two-thirds (62%) of those who backed Rebecca Long-Bailey were opposed, while one in five (20%) were in favour.

Among those who supported Lisa Nandy, 63% supported digital ID cards, with 21% opposed.

READ MORE: Labour Party Conference 2025: Full LabourList events programme revealed

It comes as Pat McFadden floated the prospect of a digital ID card scheme as a way of addressing the small boats crisis.

In an interview with The Times, McFadden said: “People interact with the government all the time. But very often people feel they have to get tooled up to do it: it’s going to be a hassle-filled process, and it shouldn’t be. I think a digital identity system can make this much more convenient and easy for people.”

He also the newspaper that requiring people to produce digital ID could help tackle Britain’s black economy.

“If you go for a job, it’s perfectly reasonable to ask, you’ve got to prove who you say you are. At the moment, you are meant to do that, but there’s no single mechanism for you to do that.

“I think there are applications of digital ID to the immigration system, to the benefit system, to a number of areas which can show that we are interested in proper validation of people’s identity, that the people who exercise rights are the people who are entitled to rights and good value for money for the taxpayer.”

Survation surveyed 1,021 readers of LabourList, the leading dedicated newsletter and news and comment website for Labour supporters, who also said they were Labour Party members between August 5 and August 9.

Data was weighted to the profile of party members by age, sex, region and 2020 Labour leadership vote, targets for which were derived from the British Election Study and the results of the 2020 leadership election.

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