Former Prime Minister Tony Blair has said it is “common sense to move in the direction of digital IDs” as part of efforts to fight coronavirus. Mr Blair said there should be a record kept by the government of those vaccinated against the virus.
The government recently set out plans to change laws to enable the use of digital identity across the UK. As prime minister, Mr Blair launched a compulsory ID card scheme, but it was scrapped by the coalition government.
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Speaking to the BBC’s Newscast podcast, he said that once a coronavirus vaccine is in use “you’re going to want a record of the fact you’ve been vaccinated”.
“You’ll want a record kept by the government of who’s been vaccinated – this will be essential, again, to restoring confidence,” he added. The former PM argued that improvements in technology meant privacy issues “can be dealt with”.
“You don’t need a large amount of information,” he said adding: “People give a lot more information to their supermarkets than they do to the government.”
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