Tony Blair Says Digital IDs and Mandatory Vaccination Will ‘Flush Out’ Political Opposition

Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair is pressuring his successor, Sir Keir Starmer, to implement sweeping measures that critics warn could erode civil liberties under the guise of modernization.

Blair is advocating for a national digital ID system, live facial recognition cameras, and even compulsory vaccination—policies he claims are necessary to secure the country and “flush out” political opposition.

While Starmer’s government is already exploring digital driving licenses and passports, Blair insists these efforts must go much further, urging the Labour leader to embrace a full-scale surveillance infrastructure.

His proposals, outlined in The Times, suggest a dramatic expansion of state control, sparking concerns over the future of personal freedom in the UK.

“What the populists do is they take a real grievance and they exploit it but they very often don’t want to have a solution because solutions are much tougher than talking about problems,” Blair said, adding:

“The grievance would be on immigration that the thing is out of control. The grievance would be on crime that we’re not doing enough on it. So you say, ‘OK, here’s what you do’. And then you have a big political fight. The populist is forced to choose. You’ve got to create an agenda that the other side has to respond to.”

Right-wing populists do offer solutions to Britain’s record-breaking mass migration influx – for example, simply capping visas issued at a set level – but in an interview with The Times^, Blair implies they have no proposed policy fixes and that digital ID can fill this gap.

“We are putting in place the building blocks for it, so that’s good. But we should embrace it fully and roll it out as soon as we can because it will have an immediate set of benefits,” the Iraq War architect told the newspaper, which revealed he is in regular contact with Prime Minister Starmer and his Cabinet.

“There will be a big debate coming down the line – and this is the political argument people should have – which is: how much privacy are you prepared to trade for efficiency? … My view is that people are actually prepared to trade quite a lot,” he argued, adding: “I think it’s a political debate the Government will win. It will also flush out a lot of people who want to talk about issues like immigration or benefit fraud but don’t actually will the means to get to the end.”

Blair governed for the better part of three terms, from 1997 to 2007, during which time he was voted the worst living Briton. As Prime Minister, he attempted to impose physical ID cards on the population but faced massive pushback, with the British public at that time unwilling to accept a communist-style “papers, please” culture for – supposedly – the sake of national security.