The government has ruled out the introduction of digital ID cards, after former Labour Prime Minister Sir Tony Blair said they could help control immigration.

Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds initially said the home secretary would “be looking at all sources of advice” on the issue.

However, he later told Times Radio ID cards were not part of the government’s plans.

However, asked about the possibility of introducing digital ID cards, Mr Reynolds told Times Radio: “We can rule that out, that’s not something that’s part of our plans.”

Opponents of identity cards have raised concerns about the potential impact on civil liberties and what they see as unnecessary data collection by the state.

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11 points

He’s pathological. He’s spent 20+ years telling us ID cards are the solution to whatever the problem of the day happens to be - benefit fraud, terrorism, illegal immigration, whatever people happen to be talking about that week. Meanwhile, he’s yet to give any convincing argument as to what we’re all supposed to do when his ID card database - containing all our biometric information and all the government’s data on us, centralised into one convenient place - inevitably gets hacked. Does he have a contract with an ID card company or something?

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7 points

I don’t think it’d even need a hacker. If previous performance is anything to go by, either an MP will leave it on a train or they’ll just sell it to some corporation eventually.

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