Overview

• Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced the government will roll out free digital identity documents that will be mandatory for anyone seeking the right to work by the end of the current Parliament in 2029.
• Starmer said people will not be able to work in the United Kingdom without the new digital document.
• Key technical and legal details have not been published and the scheme still requires parliamentary approval.
• The Times reported the plan could include a single database of digital‑ID holders that all employers must check during hiring.
• Civil‑liberties group Big Brother Watch called the idea dystopian, and international figures including Russia’s Kirill Dmitriev and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis criticized the plan, with Dmitriev invoking a biblical passage and later calling it political suicide.