Once upon a time, Tony Blair was famous for his total aversion to mobile phones while in office—an almost quaint relic of a bygone era where world leaders still relied on briefcases and, presumably, rotary phones. Fast forward to today, and Blair has reinvented himself as a techno-prophet, tirelessly evangelizing the gospel of digital governance. Gone is the Luddite prime minister; in his place stands the zealous architect of a streamlined, hyper-efficient state—one where the bureaucracy hums like a well-oiled machine and the concept of privacy is, well, negotiable.
At the heart of Blair’s latest crusade is digital ID and AI, the golden ticket to what he calls “the holy grail of governing.” And like any good evangelist, he’s found a willing disciple: Keir Starmer, the first Labour leader since Blair himself to win a general election, now pledging to transform the UK into an “AI superpower.” With Blair’s think tank, the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, whispering in the corridors of power, the former PM’s fingerprints are all over the new government’s tech-driven ambitions.
Digital ID: The Efficiency Dream, The Privacy Nightmare
Speaking to The Times, Blair laid out his vision with characteristic conviction. “You’ve got to reorder the Government around this technology revolution,” he proclaimed, as though Britain’s primary governance issue wasn’t, say, economic stagnation or a crumbling NHS, but rather a lack of digital paperwork.
Blair’s argument hinges on the seductive promise of efficiency. Why drown in red tape when technology can offer a sleek, cost-cutting alternative? “You should be able to have a state that is smaller, more strategic, and providing greater efficiency at lower cost,” he explained, adding that technology is “the instrument that allows you to do it.”
Translation? Fewer bureaucrats, more automation, and a governance model where algorithms decide who gets what. Of course, the promise of a “smaller, more strategic” state sounds great—until you remember that, historically, technological efficiency in government tends to come with a side order of surveillance creep.
And so, Blair’s masterstroke: digital ID. He wants Starmer to go all in, pushing the government to make digital identity systems a cornerstone of its modernization efforts. The government, for its part, has already announced plans to roll out a digital “wallet” in June, allowing people to store official documents—like driving licenses—on their phones. But Blair wants more. Much more.
“There’s a big debate coming down the line,” he warned. And that debate, according to him, boils down to a simple question: “How much privacy are you prepared to trade for efficiency?”
Trading Privacy for Convenience—A Faustian Bargain?
Blair, ever the pragmatist, is confident the public will happily surrender chunks of their personal freedom in exchange for smoother interactions with the state. “My view is that people are actually prepared to trade quite a lot,” he declared, as though this was some great insight rather than an ominous warning.
But what exactly would this new digital ID regime entail? Blair envisions it as a multi-purpose tool: a way to control immigration, ensure public services are accessed only by those entitled to them, and prevent unauthorized migrants from gaming the system. “It’s sending a signal that there’s no point in thinking you’re going to come here and disappear into a kind of grey economy,” he told The Times.
That’s right — Blair’s digital utopia doesn’t just promise to streamline government. It’s also a handy deterrent against the nameless masses hoping to slip through Britain’s borders undetected. Because if history has taught us anything, it’s that large-scale identity tracking systems never get misused for political ends.
(But the illegal immigrants to the country are already processed by the Home Office, during which they are provided with financial support through the ASPEN debit card. Due to a backlog in processing claims, many are housed in hotels, costing the government over £3.1 billion ($3.8B) annually. Efforts to use alternative accommodations, such as military bases and the Bibby Stockholm barge, have faced legal and safety challenges.)
And just in case anyone thought this was merely about administration, Blair threw in a bonus feature: digital ID, he claimed, could also serve as a weapon against populism. “It will also flush out a lot of people who want to talk about issues like immigration or benefit fraud but don’t actually have the means to get to the end,” he mused.
Ah, so there it is. The real utility of digital ID, beyond mere efficiency, is to expose the hypocrisy of certain political factions — because apparently, if you’re not onboard with the Blair-backed solution, you’re just another charlatan peddling empty rhetoric.
The Future of Digital Governance: A Surveillance Dream?
As Starmer’s government presses forward with its digital initiatives, the question of privacy versus control will become increasingly unavoidable. The push for digital IDs, biometric tracking, and centralized data systems has always been justified by appeals to security, efficiency, and progress. And yet, history tells us that governments rarely — if ever — tighten their grip on information without also tightening their grip on power.
Blair’s vision is clear: a frictionless, AI-powered governance model where the state operates like a tech giant, and the citizen is merely a user navigating its services. Whether the public is as enthusiastic about this brave new world remains to be seen. But if Blair is right, and people really are willing to trade “quite a lot” of privacy for efficiency, then the future of British governance may look a lot less like democracy—and a lot more like a terms-of-service agreement nobody reads until it’s too late.
