When I cast my vote in the 2024 general election, I genuinely believed that Catherine Fookes and the Labour Party offered a better, more humane alternative to the 15 years of Conservative austerity that had drained our public services and eroded trust in government. I hoped Labour would bring fairness, accountability, and trust back to government.

Yet the direction of the new government deeply worries me. In the wake of the Online Safety Act, a number of online platforms have already had users' personal data stolen or leaked - including names, emails, and even government ID images. What confidence can we have in proposals for a national digital ID system that centralises everyone’s most private information?

There’s another uncomfortable question: if this ID system is to be accessed through Google’s or Apple’s app stores, are we effectively forcing every British citizen to submit to the terms of two Silicon Valley giants? Both governed by US law and, potentially, a Trump administration hostile to privacy rights? I for one do not trust my personal data to those companies.

I implore Catherine Fookes, as my MP, to do everything in her power to curtail the creeping authoritarianism within her own party. Protecting our citizens should not mean handing their data to corporations or foreign governments.