Sir Keir Starmer has abandoned plans for mandatory digital IDs for workers in the 13th significant U-turn of his premiership.
The prime minister had previously announced that they would be compulsory to verify the right to work, as part of a crackdown on migration.
Government sources said on Tuesday night that this would instead be optional when the IDs were introduced in 2029. Workers would be given the choice of using other documents to verify their identity.
There had been concern that making the IDs mandatory would undermine public trust in the scheme and lead to a cabinet revolt. Starmer wants to refocus the case for IDs on making it easier for people to use services such as registering births, deaths and marriages, bank accounts, voting and booking GP appointments.
Shortly before Labour’s conference in September, Starmer had put migration at the heart of the rationale for IDs, saying: “We need to know who is in our country.” He said the scheme would stop illegal migrants from being able to “slip into the shadow economy”.
He pledged to make ID cards “mandatory for the right to work before the end of this parliament”.
Before he announced his plans for digital IDs, nearly six in ten voters backed them, with one in four opposed, according to YouGov. Afterwards that dropped to just under four in ten in favour, with nearly half opposed.
There are mounting concerns about the cost and complexity of the scheme. The Office for Budget Responsibility said it could cost as much as £1.8 billion over the next three years. The government has disputed that but refused to provide a figure of its own.
A government source 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 downloaded this app.”
Another government source said that it had never been wise to try to sell the plan on right-to-work checks. “That does not impact normal people,” they said. “It always should have been about the convenience.”
Under the plans, anyone starting a job would have been required to “show” the digital ID, which would be checked against a central database of those entitled to work in the UK. While right-to-work checks will still be mandatory, they can now take place using other forms of documentation such as an electronic visa or passport. A consultation will explore what other checks could be used.
A cabinet minister on Wednesday morning denied there had been a “massive U-turn”.
Heidi Alexander, the transport secretary, did not repeat previous assurances by the government that digital ID cards would be mandatory in order to allow right-to-work checks.
Instead, she said those checks would still be carried out digitally, but by other means, such as scanning a passport’s biometric chip.
Alexander told Times Radio: “You say that this is some sort of massive U-turn. We said that we would have digital checks on people for right to work. That’s what we are continuing to do.”
She suggested the digital ID card scheme could serve other purposes, even if those were voluntary.
“The benefits of having a digital ID on your phone for a lot of people would be really valuable,” Alexander said. “And it would also help in terms of making it simpler to access government services.”
Government sources also said that the changes would combat conspiracy theorists who say digital IDs are about state control of people’s lives.
Darren Jones, the chief secretary to the prime minister who is responsible for the digital ID introduction, said: “I’m confident that this time next year, polling will be in a much better place on Digital ID than it is today.”
Last week Starmer made Josh Simons, the MP and former head of the Labour Together think tank, the science and technology minister in charge of the scheme, reporting to Jones.
Starmer has suffered cabinet criticism of the scheme amid fears that it would drive left-wing Labour voters to the Liberal Democrats and Greens. Ministers told The Times in October that the scheme was a “fantasy” that would do nothing to address the problem of illegal immigration. Another said it was “too expensive and complicated” and would end up recreating “what already exists, which is e-visas for migrants”.
The reversal follows 12 others from Labour. The party has backtracked on higher business rates for pubs; relaxed the inheritance tax raid on farmers; dropped plans for day-one protection from unfair dismissal; scrapped the two-child benefit cap; shelved plans to raise the main rate of income tax; dropped welfare reforms; agreed to a national inquiry on grooming gangs; increased national insurance; reinstated winter fuel payments for millions; dropped the claim that trans women are women; watered down plans to limit academy freedoms; and dropped a pledge to act on women who have lost pension cash.
A government spokesman said: “We remain committed to mandatory digital right-to-work checks. Currently [such] checks include a hodgepodge 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.”
Mike Wood, the shadow Cabinet Office minister, said: “While we welcome the scrapping of any mandatory identification, this is yet another humiliating U-turn from the government. 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 back benches.”
The Liberal Democrats said: “No 10 must be bulk-ordering motion sickness tablets … to cope with all their U-turns.”
