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Keir Starmer has rejected the claim that his change of plan over digital IDs represents another U-turn, as the prime minister faced accusations from the Conservatives that his government had “no sense of direction”.
Late on Tuesday it emerged that a key plank of the controversial plan for digital IDs was being rolled back, with a proposal to make the document mandatory for people to show their right to work being dropped, with other forms of identification being allowed instead, for example a passport with a digital chip or e-visa.
While Downing Street portrayed the change as a technical tweak, it removes the only compulsory element of the plan, significantly watering down the impact of the digital ID scheme.
It follows a series of other recent policy changes, including on changes to inheritance tax for farms, and the way business rates are charged for pubs.
But in a broadcast interview on Wednesday, Starmer said the key point of the checks – that people would need to show a digital form of ID – “is still there”. He told ITV: “You will be checked. Those checks will be digital. And they will be mandatory. What we’re now doing is consulting on exactly what that might look like.”
Challenged on whether this was nonetheless a U-turn, Starmer replied: “No. We said that you’ll be checked, there will be digital checks. The purpose of it was to stop people working illegally in the country. In the end, that’s the overriding consideration for me, because too many people are working illegally in our country.
“That shouldn’t be happening. And I’m determined to stamp it out. And that’s why we’re taking the measures that we are.”
Earlier in the day, at prime minister’s questions in the Commons, Starmer was ridiculed by Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, who said his government was in chaos after another change in policy. Calling digital ID “a rubbish policy”, Badenoch began her questions by saying: “Can I welcome the prime minister’s latest U-turn? I feel like I say that every week.”
She added: “He is blowing around like a plastic bag in the wind, no sense of direction whatsoever.”
The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, has played down the significance of the change, arguing that as long as people have to show some form of digital ID to work, it makes little difference what it is. She told BBC One’s Breakfast: “We are saying that you will need mandatory digital ID to be able to work in the UK. Now the difference is whether that has to be one piece of ID, a digital ID card, or whether it could be an e-visa or an e-passport, and we’re pretty relaxed about what form that takes.”
The business secretary, Peter Kyle, made a similar point later on Wednesday to BBC Radio 4’s World At One programme, saying: “Let’s be really clear, this means linking people’s biometric data to their immediate identity, and it is done so in a way that is instant, and government can check instantly their eligibility to work.”
By the time digital-only checks for eligibility to work were in place in 2029, he said, the digital ID system would be up and running. He said: “We will clarify this near the time what other forms may or may not be useful or needed in those circumstances. But let’s be really clear, this means linking people’s biometric data to their immediate identity, and it is done so in a way that is instant, and government can check instantly their eligibility to work.”
