In a significant policy reversal, Labour has been compelled to retract its proposal for mandatory digital identification for workers, marking a notable climbdown. Originally, Sir Keir Starmer had proposed this measure as a means to address illegal immigration, suggesting that digital IDs would become a necessity to confirm an individual’s right to work in the UK.
However, on Tuesday evening, following substantial public criticism, the government executed its 13th U-turn, opting to soften the compulsory nature of its digital ID initiative. Instead of a mandatory requirement, digital IDs will now be an optional measure when they are introduced in 2029. Workers will have the choice to use alternative documents for digital identity verification.
Notably, the scheme’s other components were already designated as voluntary, ensuring that British citizens will not be obliged to adopt an official digital ID at the initial rollout stage.
The Conservative party responded to the abandonment of the mandatory element with approval but did not hold back from labeling the decision as “yet another humiliating U-turn from the Government.”
All other aspects of the scheme were already set to be voluntary – meaning Britons will not have to adopt an official digital ID at all when they are first introduced.
Last night the Conservatives welcomed the scrapping of the mandatory element of the scheme but branded the move ‘yet another humiliating U-turn from the Government’.
Tory Shadow cabinet office minister Mike Wood said: ‘Keir Starmer’s spinelessness is becoming a pattern, not an exception.
‘What was sold as a tough measure to tackle illegal working is now set to become yet another costly, ill-thought-out experiment abandoned at the first sign of pressure from Labour’s backbenches.’
Sir Keir Starmer had vowed to crack down on illegal immigration by making digital ID compulsory to verify somebody’s right to work in the UK. But on Tuesday night, the Government was forced into its 13th U-turn as it watered down the mandatory element of its digital ID scheme following a public backlash
Protesters march against UK Government’s plan to introduce a digital identification card in central in London, United Kingdom on October 18, 2025
Tory shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick said: ‘This was always a terrible idea which wouldn’t have made any difference to tackling illegal migration.
‘Starmer just lurches from one appalling misjudgment to the next.’
Silkie Carlo, director of civil liberties group Big Brother Watch, which is campaigning against the policy, welcomed the U-turn but called for Labour to go further and scrap digital IDs entirely.
‘The case for the government now dropping digital IDs entirely is overwhelming,’ she said.
‘Taxpayers should not be footing a £1.8billion bill for a digital ID scheme that is frankly pointless.
‘The proposal to make right to work checks digital could raise similar cybersecurity, fraud and privacy risks that digital IDs carry. The devil will be in the detail but this whole digital ID debacle smacks of incompetence.’
The Liberal Democrats mocked Labour for performing yet another U-turn, joking that ‘Number 10 must be bulk ordering motion sickness tablets at this rate’
The party’s cabinet office spokeswoman Lisa Smart said: ‘It was clear right from the start this was a proposal doomed to failure, that would have cost obscene amounts of taxpayers money to deliver absolutely nothing.
‘The government now needs to confirm that the billions of pounds earmarked for their mandatory digital ID scheme will be spent on the NHS and frontline policing instead.’
Campaigners protesting outside Parliament last month ahead of a debate on Digital ID
Pictured: Mock-ups of what has been dubbed a ‘Brit Cards’ could look like
The Prime Minister first announced plans to introduce digital ID on the eve of last year’s Labour Party conference, saying they would be mandatory for anyone working in the UK.
The plans were sold as a way of deterring illegal immigration by making it harder to work illegally in Britain, with Sir Keir saying that ‘we need to know who is in our country’ and that the digital IDs would prevent migrants who ‘come here, slip into the shadow economy and remain here illegally’.
Under the plans, anyone starting a new job would have been required to show the digital ID, which would then be automatically checked against an official database of those entitled to work in the UK.
But ministers will now not make digital ID mandatory for right to work checks when the scheme is first introduced in 2029, although potentially would still make it mandatory later down the line, according to PoliticsHome.
However right-to-work checks in some form will still be mandatory, with the Government looking at other ‘technical options’ for using different forms of identification, such as an electronic visa or a passport. These are due to be set out in a consultation that is expected to start within weeks.
A Government spokesman insisted ministers were still ‘committed to mandatory digital right-to-work checks’, and have ‘always been clear that details on the digital ID scheme will be set out following a full public consultation, which will launch shortly’.
The Digital ID plans were sold as a way of deterring illegal immigration by making it harder to work illegally in Britain
Migration Minister Mike Tapp insisted last night that digital ID is ‘not being abandoned’, but asked if there will be absolutely no U-Turn on digital ID, he responded: ‘As far as I’m aware, no.’
‘There’s a lot being discussed behind the scenes, but I’m very clear on this, there will be mandatory digital checks for work,’ Mr Tapp told LBC.
‘Announcements will come in due course. But we have said, before the end of this Parliament… The ambition is to have mandatory work checks, which will be digital by the end of this Parliament.’
The latest U-turn is the 13th of this Labour Government and comes after the Prime Minister backtracked on plans to raise business rates for hospitality firms and watered down his inheritance tax raid on farms.
It is also the latest setback to the Government’s plans for Digital ID.
Polling suggests there has been a collapse in public support for the policy since the Prime Minister announced it in September.
Meanwhile an online petition urging the Government not to introduce the scheme has garnered almost three million signatures, with critics claiming the cards would threaten civil liberties.
Even many Labour MPs are uneasy about the plans, raising concerns about the risks of hacking, the cost, elderly people being left behind and state surveillance.
Ministers are also disgruntled after Sir Keir’s right-hand man Darren Jones ordered them to raid their departments’ budgets to pay for the scheme, which the Office for Budget Responsibility has claimed will cost £1.8billion over three years.
And there was a furious backlash from opposition MPs and campaigners earlier this month when the Daily Mail revealed that ministers have privately discussed issuing Digital ID to newborn babies alongside the ‘red book’ of child health records given to new parents.
A Government source told The Times that the compulsory element ‘was stopping conversation about what digital IDs could be used for generally’.
They said: ‘Stepping back from mandatory-use cases will deflate one of the main points of contention. We do not want to risk there being cases of some 65-year-old in a rural area being barred from working because he hasn’t installed the ID.’
A Government spokesman said: ‘We are committed to mandatory digital right to work checks.
‘Currently right to work checks include a hodge podge of paper-based systems with no record of checks ever taking place. This is open to fraud and abuse.
‘We have always been clear that details on the digital ID scheme will be set out following a full public consultation which will launch shortly.
‘Digital ID will make everyday life easier for people, ensuring public services are more personal, joined-up, and effective, while also remaining inclusive.’
