Britain is set to abandon plans to make it compulsory for workers to have a digital identity document, The times newspaper, the BBC and other media outlets reported on Tuesday, potentially marking a new policy U-turn for the Labor government.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced in September last year that his government would require every employee to hold a digital ID in a bid to tackle illegal immigration and reduce the threat from the populist Reform UK party.
The government said digital identification would be kept on people’s mobile phones and become a mandatory part of the checks employers must carry out when hiring staff.
The plan drew criticism from political opponents, with some saying it would not deter illegal immigration, while others warned it could infringe on civil liberties.
The times said the government had abandoned the project, fearing it would undermine public confidence in the system, noting that when introduced in 2029, digital identifications would be optional rather than mandatory.
Other forms of documents, such as a visa or electronic passport, would still be valid, The times said.
“We are committed to making digital right-to-work checks mandatory,” a government spokesperson said. “We have always been clear that the details of the digital ID project would be worked out following a full public consultation which will be launched shortly.”
The spokesperson said current checks rely on a “hodgepodge” of paper-based systems, with no record of whether they have been carried out, leaving the process open to fraud and abuse.
If plans for mandatory digital ID are scrapped, it would mark a further policy decline for Starmer.
In December, the government scaled back a plan to increase taxes on farmers, months after abandoning plans to cut social spending and scaling back a proposal to reduce subsidies on energy bills for the elderly.
