Digital ID

Gavin Robinson Excerpts

Monday 13th October 2025 Commons Chamber

[Liz Kendall]

I hope that I have explained why digital ID needs to be mandatory for right to work checks, and the benefits of that as one part of a toolkit of things to crack down on illegal immigration. Making sure that vulnerable people—those who do not have smartphones or tablets, or the skills—have access is extremely important to me. We will be working closely with all the organisations that can make a difference and the digital inclusion action committee, and we want to look at what more we can do very locally to support groups that we know have access to people. I would be very happy to meet my hon. Friend to talk in more detail about what we might be able to do to support her constituents, because we are determined to make sure that Britain is a digitally included country.

[Gavin Robinson (Belfast East) (DUP)]

Through the Secretary of State, may I thank the Minister for Digital Government and Data, who is sitting to her left? He was in Belfast last week and engaged with the Minister for Communities in the Northern Ireland Executive. He will know, and she should know, that our principled and practical objections to this proposal 20 years ago remain to this day, but the Secretary of State will also know that since the policy’s announcement there have been many fanciful and facile comments in Northern Ireland suggesting that it would be in breach of the Belfast agreement. She knows that ideologically, practically, principally, politically and legally, that is wrong, so will she at least confirm today that nothing within the consultation will give an option to anyone to suggest that the policy, if it were to be introduced, would be anything other than across the United Kingdom?

[Liz Kendall]

It will be across the United Kingdom. As the right hon. Gentleman said, my right hon. Friend the Minister for Digital Government and Data was in Northern Ireland just last week, and he also visited and talked to members of the Irish Government. The Good Friday agreement and the common travel area are absolutely sacrosanct. This will be a UK-wide proposal, and nothing that we do would ever harm the Good Friday agreement.