Headline position.
Digital identity: No universal digital ID. The phrase alone is politically radioactive and the Companies House hack demonstrated government cannot be trusted with it. Existing infrastructure (passports, National Insurance numbers, driving licences) is adequate for legitimate government functions when properly integrated.
Immigration identity: Swiss-style permit system for non-UK nationals. Cross-referenced with central database (interior-facing, not public-facing). Solves right-to-work, welfare eligibility, and compliance questions without creating a surveillance infrastructure for citizens.
Online Safety Act age verification: Repeal. Creates blackmail vectors, violates privacy, and does not meaningfully protect children.
Sovereign digital capability: Build it. Stop procuring it from Palantir, Oracle, Amazon, and equivalent vendors. The UK has the engineering talent; it has been captured by consultants and foreign primes.
Digital Infrastructure Policy.
Sovereign Capability Programme.
- Consolidated Government Digital Service with proper budget and engineering authority
- Cloud infrastructure: UK-sovereign options prioritised; departures from US hyperscalers phased over 10 years where feasible
- Critical national infrastructure data (NHS, tax, benefits, justice) held in UK-sovereign systems
- Open source default for government-developed software
- End of Palantir, Oracle, and equivalent vendor capture across government (NHS, MoD, Home Office)
Cost: £1–1.5bn/year capital for 5 years to build capability. Net operating cost neutral or positive vs current vendor fees within 5 years.
Broadband and Mobile Infrastructure.
- Rural broadband completion: committed timeline, no more slippage
- 5G deployment constrained by planning permission (ties to planning reform already in platform; a separate break-out on mobile infrastructure is needed)
- Spectrum auction reform to ensure UK infrastructure investment, not extractive pricing
Cost: £500m/year additional to existing commitments.
AI and Data Policy.
- Position: regulate outcomes, not technology. No separate "AI Act" of the EU type.
- Data protection regime strengthened, particularly around children, health data, and biometrics
- Public sector AI procurement subject to transparency requirements
- Support for UK AI companies via R&D tax credits and British Business Bank co-investment
- Specific concern: foreign acquisition of UK AI and data companies (Arm/NVIDIA experience). National Security and Investment Act used actively.
Social Media and Online Platforms.
- Online Safety Act: partial repeal (age verification) + partial retention (child safety provisions that do not require identity infrastructure)
- Platform liability reform: stronger for demonstrable content harms to children
- Transparency requirements on recommendation algorithms
- No "legal but harmful" provisions for adults
- Journalists and small publishers protected from overreach
Cybersecurity.
- National Cyber Security Centre strengthened, additional resources
- Critical national infrastructure cybersecurity mandatory minimum standards
- Public sector cyber hygiene: most public sector breaches are basic failures, addressable
Cost: £200–400m/year additional to existing spend.
Immigration Architecture.
Permit-Based System for Non-UK Nationals.
Mechanism
- All non-UK nationals resident in UK issued a permit card with biometric and photograph
- Permit specifies status: work permit (skill level, employer), study, family, settled status, asylum-pending
- Single interior-facing central database (not accessible to employers, landlords, banks directly: they verify via controlled query system similar to DBS)
- Replaces current mess of BRP cards, settled status digital systems, and visa vignettes
Rationale
- This is not a digital ID because it applies only to non-UK nationals (who already have visa status)
- Swiss model works: it is administratively efficient and doesn't create the blackmail infrastructure concerns
- Solves right-to-work checks, welfare eligibility, and compliance without surveillance of citizens
Immigration Numbers: The Arithmetic Position.
Position (consistent with earlier framing): "We don't care where people are from. We care whether the numbers work."
Policy architecture
- Annual cap on net migration set in Parliament, reviewed annually against housebuilding capacity
- Economic criterion: net migration target linked to housebuilding delivery + infrastructure capacity
- Points-based system retained but tightened: genuine skill shortages only, not corporate cheap-labour substitute
- Student visa framework maintained but graduate route reformed: students can work in graduate-level roles, not indefinitely in low-skill work
- Dependent visa restrictions tightened for lower-skilled work routes
- Care sector visa reformed with pay floor to stop exploitation
Asylum System.
- Genuine asylum right protected (Refugee Convention obligations met)
- Process radically accelerated: target 6-month decisions, not 3-year backlogs
- Processing capacity built properly, funded properly
- Channel crossings addressed via returns agreements with France/EU (requires diplomatic capital)
- Rwanda-type schemes: not pursued (expensive, didn't work, morally difficult)
Illegal Migration and Enforcement.
- Employer sanctions genuinely enforced: currently toothless, creates demand pull
- Landlord right-to-rent checks simplified via permit system
- Removals capacity built back up from current low base
- Focus on enforcement against those who refuse legal routes, not vulnerable people
Settled Status and Citizenship.
- EU Settlement Scheme honoured
- Path to settlement and citizenship transparent and achievable for long-term residents
- Citizenship ceremony and civic integration maintained
Cost of immigration system reform: £500m/year for proper processing capacity, offset by reduced asylum backlog costs over 3–5 years. Net neutral to positive by Y5.
Online Safety Act Repeal.
What is Repealed.
- Age verification requirements for adult content platforms
- Duties of care that amount to requiring identity verification
- Any provision requiring user identity linkage to government identity systems
What is Retained.
- CSAM provisions
- Fraud enforcement provisions
- Terrorism content provisions
- Illegal content takedown framework (where courts have determined illegality)
What Replaces It.
- Platform-level age assurance (device-based, behavioural, not identity-linked)
- Parental controls at device and network level, actively supported
- Media literacy education in schools
- Criminal liability for platforms that demonstrably ignore CSAM reports
Rationale.
The age verification system creates a blackmail infrastructure. "So you like [x]?" is not a hypothetical concern: this is exactly how foreign intelligence services compromise officials historically. Once the database exists, it will be breached, leaked, or abused. The Companies House hack and previous major UK public sector breaches (Electoral Commission, NHS, various police forces) demonstrate this is not paranoid speculation.
The political framing: "No British citizen should have to register their sexual interests with the government. The Online Safety Act created a blackmail machine waiting to be exploited. We are getting rid of it."
Costs.
| Item | Y3 | Y5 | Y10 |
|---|
| Sovereign digital capability (capex) | £1.5bn | £1bn | £0.5bn |
| Sovereign digital capability (opex, net) | £0.2bn | −£0.3bn | −£0.5bn |
| Broadband/mobile additional | £0.5bn | £0.5bn | £0.3bn |
| Cybersecurity | £0.3bn | £0.4bn | £0.4bn |
| Immigration system reform | £0.5bn | £0.3bn | £0.2bn |
| Asylum backlog clearance (one-off) | £0.8bn Y1-Y3 | — | — |
| TOTAL NET ANNUAL | £3bn | £1.9bn | £0.9bn |
Revised running headroom: Y5 £13.6bn remaining / Y10 £46.1bn remaining
Strategic Framing.
The digital/immigration cluster is where Common demonstrates it takes both civil liberties and state competence seriously, which is a politically rare combination. Reform UK is strong on the "control our borders" message but weak on civil liberties. Labour is weak on both in practice despite rhetoric. The Lib Dems are strong on civil liberties but weak on border competence.
Common's pitch: "We will control who comes into the country, but we will not make the country into a surveillance state to do it. The people who come here legally will have proper papers. The people who come illegally will be removed. British citizens will not have their private lives tracked by government to solve problems that are not their fault."
The age verification repeal is politically a massive win: it plays to both libertarian right and civil-liberties left, alienates only the specific commercial interests that lobbied for the current Act, and has a powerful framing ("blackmail machine").