Overview

• Keir Starmer announced a nationwide digital identity, saying “you will not be able to work in the United Kingdom if you do not have digital ID.”
• The credential will sit in a GOV.UK wallet on smartphones and be checked against a central database, with alternatives promised for people without smartphones.
• Ministers plan to launch a consultation later this year and then legislate, with the government aiming for availability by the end of the current parliament in 2029.
• Officials frame the plan as curbing illegal work as a ‘pull factor’ for unauthorised migration, and say it could also simplify access to services such as driving licences, childcare, welfare and tax records.
• Civil liberties groups and opposition figures warn of privacy and exclusion risks, with a petition reported at more than 825,000 signatures and criticism from Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and Reform UK.