For the General Election 2024, we extracted everything we could from the manifestos of each UK political party, to understand what their understanding of digital rights issues is, and what we might expect from a new government. We also helped organise a Digital hustings for the political parties, which you can watch here. Here is a summary of what we found; a full commentary is provided in our manifesto analysis.

A Digital Bill of Rights

The Liberal Democrats and Greens both propose a Digital Bill of Rights. This could help reinforce online rights, and embed many of the things we campaign for.

ECHR yes or no

The Conservative Party allude to potentially leaving the European Court of Human Rights if it interferes with their plans on immigration and relocating asylum seekers in Rwanda. Reform UK says it will leave and create a British Bill of Rights. Greens and Lib Dems are clear about their commitment to a human rights framework; Labour leave remaining in the ECHR implied.

Artificial Intelligence is firmly on the policy agenda

Most of the parties talk at length about AI and its potential benefits. Labour and Conservative manifestos push the economic benefits. Labour proposes regulation, without detailing what they would try to regulate. Greens and Lib Dems are clearer about the potential harms and need for regulation to deal with them.

This is an area which needs a great deal more thought and clarity. AI has much potential for good, but also for harm, but there is as yet insufficient recognition of the risks by the larger parties.

Digital rights implications for policy are found everywhere

Many policies and changes advocated throughout the manifestos have significant implications for privacy, due process and free expression. Sometimes these are acknowledged, especially by Greens and Lib Dems. However they are not properly acknowledged by the parties pushing for greater police powers or border controls, or for use of AI in health, for example.

Calls for stronger police powers

The Lib Dems and Greens make a specific call for scrapping the use of live facial recognition surveillance. The Greens call for Prevent to be scrapped. Labour and Conservatives push for new crime and anti-fraud measures, but do not acknowledge the potential issues. Labour would add new Respect orders, which appear to be a new for of ASBO. They do not explain how this would avoid risks of pre-criminalising people targeted by them, or how targeting of communities could be avoided. Conservatives cite facial recognition tech as something they wish to promote, alongside other advances in tech. Reform have policies regarding scrapping Diversity, Equality and Inclusion work, while increasing stop and search.

Parties that push for greater powers should be explicit about safeguards and maintenance of trust. However, the split is quite clear, between those who believe safeguards and trust are already lacking, and those who want more powers without a clear agenda for transparency and accountability; the Conservatives appear to assert accountability is currently clear.

Border controls may be securitised

Labour include promises to bolster border powers with national security service involvement in tracking criminal “gangs.” The implications of this are not explored. This forms part of a trend to move the security agencies capabilities into use in areas which are not strictly national security focused issues. The implications for individuals are very significant; for migrants and asylum seekers this places them at further risk of inappropriate treatment by the secret state; however this is not discussed. Labour are also pushing for faster processing of claims, which is positive in one sense, but “fast-track removals” would appear to risk that individuals are not given a fair hearing. Over-reliance on technology, digital records or AI assessments could pose particular additional risks.

Conservative policies emphasise the role of Rwanda deportations, and that they would not be held to decisions of the ECHR on these. They add the need for international co-operation, and say they would withdraw visa access from countries that do not co-operate on UK migration policy.

Lib Dems and Greens call for the end to the “hostile environment”. The Lib Dems specifically ask for an end to data sharing with the Home Office and both parties commit to repeal the Immigration Exemption in the Data Protection Act. Greens would place migration into a new, separate government department.

Health policy may rely on technology procurement

Both Labour and Conservatives emphasise the role of technology in health policy. The Conservatives specifically mention the use of AI and scrapping outdated computers, while technology investment and innovation is highlighted by Labour. Lib Dems say that opt outs from data sharing must be maintained but agree that tech must improve. There are clearly significant risks around technology change; Labour in particular need to consider the problems that emerged from IT procurement in the 1990s and 2000s, which led to many IT systems being scrapped and money being wasted. The current push for AI-based systems combined with the need for NHS modernisation poses similar risks. In the last decades, we have seen many companies seeing NHS personal health data as a potential gold mine for their product development, including Google and Palantir, making procurement risks very concerning for individuals.

Environmental tech isn’t yet on the agenda

Despite several recent clashes between centralised environmental technology systems, such as London’s ULEZ cameras being used for policing, and the broken promise that government would never use Smart Meter data for anything other than metering, the need to avoid making Green tech into a surveillance programme has not yet been surfaced. The Greens suggest restrictions for 20 mile an hour road traffic, and a frequent-flyer levy based on the number of flights an individual had made. Both of these policies could create data collection issues to make them enforceable.

Political reform is on the agenda

Labour, Lib Dems, Greens and Reform UK have policies to reform the House of Lords, to differing degrees. Labour emphasise changes to stop MPs taking multiple roles. Measures which strengthen parliament and especially the Lords would be very welcome, as this is where digital legislation gets looked at in detail. Currently the Lords lack political legitimacy, so even where points are recognised, it is not the case that legislation is amended. Perhaps the biggest change needed is to establish a political environment where changes and concessions in the revising chamber that arise from engagement with civil society groups such as ORG are not seen as political embarrassments for the government, but as a necessary part of the democratic process. For this to be the case, the Lords need their own political mandate.

Data and Democracy

Digital Rights Manifesto

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