The Starmer Government, having insulted our intelligence for months with its bitter economic policies and its feeble excuses for them, now insults us directly.

Through leaks planted thickly across the media, Sir Keir has let it be known that he proposes to introduce digital identity cards. 

He said a few weeks ago that a new ID card scheme could play an ‘important part’ in reducing illegal entry to this country.

But this weekend he went further, letting it be known through the Westminster whisper network that he hopes to announce the launch of digital ID cards for British citizens in just days, in what he claims to be an attempt to ‘crack down’ on illegal immigrants. 

What he is saying is that because he cannot guard our national borders, he is going to destroy our most basic freedoms – the freedom to be left alone by bossy authority and the freedom to be presumed innocent rather than guilty. 

Because ‘smash the gangs’ and ‘one in, one out’ have been the abject flops we all knew they would be, we must suffer for his overconfidence and silly boasting.

This is so outrageous that there really ought to be a national minute’s silence while we all consider it, followed by two minutes of jeering at its useless absurdity. 

In this policy turn he is echoing Sir Tony Blair, who tried and failed to impose a similar plan during his own chequered time in office but still goes on about it from the rarefied, Olympian spheres of big money and influence where he now dwells, lifted high above responsibility and the hurly-burly of debate.

No grim-jawed official is ever going to ask Sir Tony (or Sir Keir) for his papers, or refuse him a service or a freedom if he cannot produce them. 

Interestingly, Labour’s official line has until recently been to spurn such a policy. 

When she was Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper bluntly rejected calls from Sir Tony for ID cards, stating they were ‘not in the party’s election manifesto’. 

Ms Cooper was quite right. It is distressing to hear suggestions that her successor, Shabana Mahmood, favours the idea.

Labour has no mandate for this. Labour MPs have no right or obligation to vote for it, and the House of Lords is free to toss it out. 

More importantly, it is a stupid project. 

France has had identity documents since the days of the guillotine, and actual identity cards for a century. But Paris currently estimates that there are up to 700,000 undocumented migrants working in France, in construction, agriculture, hospitality, cleaning and domestic services.

It should be added that, when Britain endured ID cards during the Second World War, they failed to achieve anything, encouraged petty tyranny by officials, and became fiercely unpopular before being abolished. So much for that.

Let us hope the Tories and Reform can join forces to rip up Sir Keir’s plan before it gets beyond the planning stage. 

Nigel Farage and Kemi Badenoch oppose such cards. 

Lord Ashcroft’s latest opinion poll, which The Mail on Sunday publishes today, shows that a joint Tory-Reform party would have a decisive 7 per cent lead over Labour, even if both parties would lose supporters by getting together with each other. 

So it makes sense for them to work together where they agree, and they would do well to start on this issue.