Should UK use compulsory ID cards to discourage small boats? What Yahoo readers say
Yahoo UK's poll of the week lets you vote and indicate your strength of feeling on one of the week's hot topics. After 72 hours the poll closes and, each Friday, we'll publish and analyse the results, giving readers the chance to see how polarising a topic has become and if their view chimes with other Yahoo UK readers.
Yahoo readers have shown overwhelming support for Lord David Blunkett's proposal of compulsory ID cards to crack down on small boat crossings across the English Channel.
Earlier this week, the Labour peer urged Sir Keir Starmer to bring in the policy if he wins the next general election in an attempt to reduce illegal immigration and the tragedy caused by people smugglers.
Lord Blunkett has suggested that all workers should be required to submit their ID cards to employers before being allowed to work.
He first proposed the idea of compulsory identity documents in 2001, following the 9/11 terror attacks, during his tenure as home secretary under Tony Blair.
Lord Blunkett has argued that smugglers would encourage those crossing the Channel not to claim asylum, given the Tory government's Rwanda scheme.
He told The Times: "They’ll say, ‘We’ll get you across to UK, then ring this number, we’ll get you a job and accommodation’, and then they’ll disappear into the sub-economy."
Civil rights groups have long been wary of the potential for national ID schemes. Responding to a proposal of "digital ID cards" in 2020, campaign group Liberty warned against "huge central databases" that would record "all of our interactions with the state".
Yahoo News UK asked readers if compulsory ID cards were needed to combat the increasing number of small boat crossings across the Channel.
We conducted a poll from Monday until Thursday at midday, receiving a total of 4,098 votes.
The poll question was "Should the UK introduce compulsory ID cards to reduce small boat crossings?"
Out of the total number of votes, 79% of respondents believed that introducing ID cards would be an effective solution, while 16% believed that it would impinge on civil liberties.
The remaining 5% were undecided.
We also conducted a slider poll asking "How much of a priority is discouraging small boat crossings?"
The poll received 2,063 votes with a mode of 10 and 1,173 votes, and an average of 8.2.
Our original poll article can be found here.
79% of respondents said IDs would be an effective solution
According to a YouGov survey conducted in 2023, 54% of the British population expressed support for mandating that every individual in the UK carry an official ID card.
The public also expressed their support for the government to monitor all public spaces in the UK with CCTV cameras by a margin of 55% to 36%, keep a record of all citizens' fingerprints by 50% to 40%, and require phone manufacturers to assist security services in unlocking password-protected phones made by the manufacturer by 50% to 31%.
Read more of Yahoo UK's Poll of the Week articles
