TONY BLAIR INSTITUTE: Digital ID will help Keir Starmer solve immigration dirty secret

Illegal jobs are Britain’s dirty secret.

Worth nearly £180 billion, it’s fuelled by rogue bosses who exploit undocumented workers, dragging down pay across industries while dodging the taxes every honest worker has to pay.

Why? Because our checks are paper-based, patchy, and easily forged. Landlords, employers, and banks are supposed to verify status, but the rules are so confusing that most get them wrong.

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Criminal gangs know this, flogging fake passports for £12,500 a pop to people who want to bypass the system. No wonder illegal working arrests jumped 51% last year.

It’s time to pull the plug, and Digital ID is how we do it. That’s why the government is right to finally push it forward.

Done properly, Digital ID won’t just catch dodgy employers – it will kill the demand for them. No fake papers. No backdoor shortcuts. Real-time proof of who’s entitled to work, rent and bank.

The loopholes vanish, the business model collapses. And to the dodgy employers reading this. Shame on you. You’re the ones propping up illegal living - and fuelling illegal immigration.

That’s exactly why Digital ID will finish you off. For the first time, Britain won’t be flying blind. We could monitor dodgy payrolls in real time, not wait for data dumps every few months.

No more blind enforcement, just smart enforcement. And that means swooping on the worst offenders while honest firms are left to get on with business.

Other countries have already cracked it. Estonia tied digital IDs to payroll and tax, slashing undeclared work. India’s Aadhaar opened up services securely to over a billion people. Britain, meanwhile, is still stuck in the 20th century.

Critics argue that e-visas are enough. They’re not; they’re yesterday’s answer to today’s problem. E-visas are a bolt-on to a creaking, paper-based system. They answer one question – “is this person allowed to stay?” – but they don’t close the loopholes.

Fake papers, duplicate identities, dodgy addresses – they all slip straight through. Digital ID is universal, tamper-proof, and instant. It links immigration status directly to the everyday transactions that make life possible. It’s not just about border control; it’s about shutting down illegal work.

This is the prize: fewer illegal jobs, higher wages, and a fair deal for everyone who plays by the rules.

Digital ID won’t stop rogue employers existing, but it will starve them of the people they prey on.

The government is finally backing Digital ID. Now it must deliver – to cut off the veins of the shadow economy and build a fairer, stronger Britain.

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