Starmer meets with Aadhaar architect to consult on UK digital ID

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer met with Aadhaar architect and Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani this week during a visit to India, Bloomberg reports, to consult on his government’s plan to issue a national digital ID mandatory for employment.

A government spokesperson said the PM sought out the meeting to see what lessons from India’s experience with Aadhaar could be applied in the UK.

Starmer told reports that India has “already done ID and made a massive success of it,” and shrugged off criticism of the program, according to the Financial Times. He has previously repeated claims that India has saved $10 billion a year by using Aadhaar to reduce benefits fraud.

The National reports that Starmer said India’s model is not “directly applicable nor comparable,” and the UK may not use biometrics the same way.

Aadhaar’s critics contend that the savings have been overstated, and that at least some of what has been saved is due to the exclusion of legitimate beneficiaries. Others have criticized its centralized architecture as leaving it susceptible to breaches of sensitive personal information.

Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Pat McFadden argued in September that the UK should learn from Estonia’s example of how to provide a national digital ID.

The UK’s proposal is clearly intended to give users control over how their data is shared, but a repeated claim that for verification, “It would then be checked against a central database of people entitled to live and work in the UK” suggests a new, Aadhaar-style database may be in the works.

Article Topics

Aadhaar  |  BritCard  |  digital ID  |  government services  |  identity management  |  UK  |  UK digital ID