TONY BLAIR: Taxes are excessive. The NHS is coming aside on the seams. We want a once-in-a-generation disruption. Here’s what might change the whole lot

I make you this confident prediction: in the not too distant future, British people will all have their own unique digital identifier, and will make most transactions through their phone, as citizens with government and as customers with firms.

And we will wonder what all the fuss was about. It will make everything we do faster, cheaper and more reliable.

But first, the bigger political context in which these debates about the future are happening. We live in an era of disruption, including in politics. Britain, like every major developed nation, faces the same dilemma. Our taxes are high; our spending and levels of public debt are high; and our service outcomes are poor. So, we spend more on the NHS than ever before, with more staff than ever before – and the service is coming apart at the seams.

That is why politics is being disrupted. Any politician today, who is promising management of the status quo and not fundamental change of it, will lose. This is the true explanation of Donald Trump’s victory in November’s election. This is why Governments across Europe are falling. It explains everything from the splintering of the vote here in the UK at the last election to the triumph of the maverick and experimental new president of Argentina.

It is why governing is so different today from the time – more than a quarter of a century ago now – when I became Prime Minister.

Then, between 1997 to 2007, we had strong growth, could afford investment in public services, and enjoyed rising productivity and real wages, with satisfaction rates for the NHS rising from 34 per cent in 1997 to 70 per cent (compared to 24 per cent today). And $2 to the pound.

The financial crisis, the energy crisis, changes in the global economy, Covid – and in Britain, post-Brexit, frequent changes in leadership – have all taken their toll. And today the challenges of governing are infinitely harder. However, there is one tool available today which wasn’t available back in 2007. We’re living through a 21st-century Technological Revolution every bit as dramatic in its effects, if not more so, as the 18th-century Industrial Revolution.

Already it is transforming the private sector. The biggest companies in the world today are the tech giants. In each case, they’re valued at more than the entire economic output of most countries.

Tony Blair was prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 until 2007, and is now executive chairman of the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change

Think about how we live and interact with each other – how we use Amazon to shop; mobile phones for banking; Google Maps for directions; apps to watch TV, consume news, and book trains, flights, holidays and entertainment. And they all use our data to personalise their service.

Why is TikTok so successful? Because its algorithms establish your personal preferences so quickly and satisfy them with their content. How do they do that? By accumulating your data and using the services of a huge number of computer engineers to make those algorithms so effective.

Is this world also scary in many respects? Absolutely. Most technology, including artificial intelligence (AI), is general-purpose technology. It can be used for good or ill. But as I say when discussing the issue with the governments around the globe with whom my Institute works, there is no point in debating whether it’s a good thing or a bad thing. It is a thing. Possibly the thing. And history teaches us that what is invented by human ingenuity is rarely disinvented by human anxiety.

So, we should reduce the risks as far as possible. But the risks should not blind us to the opportunities.

Imagine that all your health information was in one place: easy, with your permission, for anyone anywhere in the health service to see. That your passport, driving licence, anything you need to prove your identity, were in one simple digital wallet, unique to you. That you could purchase and pay for any goods or services using your Digital ID.

Countries from Singapore to India to the UAE and Estonia are doing this now – with huge amounts of time and bureaucracy saved.

But now think of all the other problems of governing. One of the biggest challenges in immigration is the number of people here without permission, since there are multiple ways of entering Britain lawfully but then staying unlawfully.

According to the latest estimates from the University of Oxford, there are between 600,000 to 750,000 in this category – more than in any other European country.

The technological revolution has the possibility to change Britain and, above all, change the way government itself functions, writes Tony Blair

But suppose that, before you accessed any part of the system of public services or welfare, you had to prove who you are and that you have the right to be in the country – and could do this swiftly and conveniently with a single app. It would allow us to track those without permission and incentivise people to not enter unlawfully or overstay, because they know they would be discovered.

It would cut benefit fraud; make online fraud far harder; and it would yield for the Government the reliable and accurate data needed to make informed policy decisions.

Around the world, governments are moving in this direction. Of the 45 governments we work with, I would estimate that three-quarters of them are embracing some form of Digital ID. The President of the World Bank, Ajay Banga, has said it is a top priority for the Bank’s work with leaders. But this is only one part of the immense, seismic change which this technological revolution will bring.

It is transforming drug discovery, with a whole raft of new treatments which will give us the chance to shift our healthcare system radically to prevention of disease rather than cure. If we used the potential of facial recognition, data and DNA, we would cut crime rates by not small but game-changing margins. There are interactive education apps now available which could provide personal tutoring for pupils.

But we need the right digital infrastructure to access all of this. And a Digital ID is an essential part of it.

Inevitably there will be concerns over privacy and security. But there are a host of safeguards and oversight measures available. And a Digital ID, properly done, gives the individual more control over their data – as they can see who can access it and why.

Britain has the capability to be leaders in this new technological revolution. We have world-class universities from which many of the new technology solutions originate. After America and China, we arguably rank number three globally in AI. Scroll through the great minds which have produced much of the revolution and British scientists and inventors feature prominently.

There are capable people in politics today who understand this challenge – including those in the new Labour Government.

But whatever the politics of the Government, this should be the mission: to master and harness this technological revolution to change Britain and, above all, change the way government itself functions.

Lower taxes, reduced spending and improved outcomes have often seemed like the Holy Grail of governing: desirable but impossible. Modern technology puts it within reach.

Our present system isn’t working. This is a time for shaking up. For once-in-a-generation disruption. Digital ID is a good place to start.

• Tony Blair was prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 until 2007, and is now executive chairman of the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change