Sir Keir Starmer’s plan to introduce digital ID could be jeopardised by the government’s long-standing arrangement allowing Irish citizens to freely work in the UK, according to reports.
Under the Common Travel Area (CTA), British and Irish citizens can live and work in either jurisdiction without having to obtain permission.
The new digital ID will be mandatory to prove your right to work in the UK by 2029, the government has pledged.
The scheme has already been heavily criticised by parties in Northern Ireland, with Sinn Féin president Mary Lou McDonald saying that her party will resist any attempt to “force” Irish citizens in Northern Ireland to get a digital ID.
She called the ID card plan a “ludicrous proposition”, and added that the right of “citizens in the north to identify as Irish was enshrined in the Good Friday Agreement”.
Now Home Office officials have told The Times that the scheme “will not work” because of the UK’s obligation under the CTA.
The plan is also opposed by the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) in Northern Ireland, with party leader Gavin Robinson saying the scheme will do “very little to stop illegal immigration”. He slammed the digital ID as “creating yet another layer of bureaucracy for ordinary citizens”.
The British Irish Chamber of Commerce has said that the plan would present “serious challenges” to cross-border workers in Northern Ireland.
A spokesperson said: “How it could work alongside the Common Travel Area, which grants reciprocal rights for Irish and UK citizens to live and work freely in each other’s country, is not clear at all.
“Ireland doesn’t have any mandatory equivalent ID card that could even be proposed for reciprocal recognition”.
Home Office officials have said that the digital ID plans will be impossible to implement unless there is a change to the CTA agreement, The Times reported.
An exemption for Irish citizens would not be acceptable as it “would effectively put them in a better position than British citizens, which would be discriminatory”, a source told the paper.
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Hilary Benn, has said that he is in consultation with the Irish government over the introduction of the ID cards.
He claimed: “I’m sure it will not beyond the wit of all of us to find a way that upholds the Good Friday Agreement [and] the Common Travel Area but moves in a direction of digital ID”.
A government spokesperson said: “The Good Friday Agreement will never be up for negotiation - its commitments and the broader recognition of the common travel area will underpin the scheme.
“We will design this system to ensure everyone who has a right to work in any part of the UK can do so easily and securely and are committed to engaging with a wide range of stakeholders as we prepare to launch a full, public consultation.”
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