David Blunkett has taken a job advising a company interested
in bidding to run Britain's controversial identity cards programme,
a policy he was the architect of and championed in government.
The former Home Secretary took up the post for the Texas-based
security firm Entrust, which specialises in securing digital
information and combating identity theft, earlier this month.
The firm already provides software for the Spanish national
ID card system and has formally registered an interest in the
British project.
Blunkett is bound by a two-year ban on lobbying British ministers
and officials from the date he resigned as Work and Pensions Secretary
in November 2005. That does not expire until this November. His
spokeswoman insisted yesterday that he would not be working in
Britain for the company and would only advise on overseas work.
However, David Davis, the shadow Home secretary, last night attacked
the decision, saying: 'David Blunkett was a staunch champion of
ID cards and involved right at the heart of the project. The British
public will be rightly sceptical about his involvement with a
company that could benefit lucratively from this £20bn scheme.
'Under no circumstances should IT companies receive any preferential
treatment and ex-ministers should not use their contacts to
obtain any special treatment. Mr Blunkett should make sure he
abides by this.' The Tories have pledged to scrap plans for
ID cards, which they describe as a 'plastic poll tax', if they
get into power.
Blunkett was one of the government's biggest defenders of identity
cards when at the Home Office, before resigning over his involvement
in a visa obtained for his lover's nanny. He maintained his
interest in the scheme when he re-entered the cabinet as Work
and Pensions Secretary: ID cards are potentially useful in the
fight against benefit fraud.
He has described ID cards as 'not a luxury or a whim - it is
a necessity'. Two weeks before he started the job, he wrote
in his column for the Sun that ID cards would 'protect our identity
from fraudsters, stop illegal foreigners in their tracks, save
billions being leeched from our welfare system and beat organised
crime'.
ID cards will become compulsory for new British passport-holders
from 2010. Making them compulsory for all Britons, including
those who do not have or choose not to have passports, would
require further legislation but the government has made it clear
that it expects the majority of the population to get identity
cards as they replace expiring passports.
Phil Booth, of the campaign group No2ID, which was set up to
fight the introduction of the cards, said that having helped
draw up the initial legislation Blunkett was extremely well
informed about the process and had also been closely involved
in negotiations across Europe about identity and security, knowledge
of which could be of interest to a US company. Entrust has offices
in nine European countries including Britain. He said. 'Maybe
Mr Blunkett has a keener or more recent experience of what clearly
is quite a Byzantine legislative field.'
Entrust has formally registered an interest in the British
ID cards project, via a scheme for potential future suppliers
to notify themselves to the Home Office's Identity and Passport
Service, and has attended two seminars organised for the ID
cards programme.
The post as chair of Entrust's international advisory committee
is declared in Blunkett's latest entry for the Commons register
of members' interests. A spokeswoman for the Advisory Committee
on Business Appointments said it had also been notified and
that it approved, subject to the two-year moratorium on lobbying
in Britain.
The spokeswoman for Blunkett said: 'He is not involved in the
UK side. His contract excludes him doing work in the UK. It
is about advice for overseas work. Obviously he has taken advice
from the advisory committee and he's absolutely going to adhere
to the advice.'
