Opinion polls on the British national identity card

The United Kingdom last had compulsory national identity cards during World War II when they were introduced for security purposes.

[1] Wartime ID cards were finally withdrawn by the Churchill government in 1952 because of the tension they created between the police and innocent citizens.

In 2018, the question was raised again, with articles in The Economist and The Times considering whether it might help address concerns about citizenship and migration, particularly in the light of the Windrush scandal.

[2][3][4] At the end of April 2018, two former Home Secretaries, Charles Clarke and Alan Johnson called for a rethink on ID cards, saying that immigration targets would be useless without them.

[5][6] In September 2018 former Home Secretary Amber Rudd added her voice, saying that "Britain should adopt a new high-tech version of ID cards to tackle fraud, illegal immigration and welfare abuse.

[9] At March 2003 the government stated that the overall results were: Some polls have indicated that public opinion on the issue varies across the UK.

The 2004 State of the Nation poll by the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust showed that opinion in Scotland was far less supportive than that in the rest of the UK.

A further poll by YouGov/The Daily Telegraph, published on 4 December 2006, indicated support for the identity card element of the scheme at 50%, with 39% opposed.

[20] A YouGov survey for The Times found a majority in favour of reintroducing identity cards, with high levels of support for granting extra powers and tools to the security services.

[22][23] An amendment in the House of Lords to list these as accepted forms of voter identification was rejected by Boris Johnson's second Conservative government.