Scrapping plans to make digital ID mandatory for workers across the UK marks a dramatic retreat from one of Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s flagship policy proposals announced last autumn. The decision represents a significant dilution of a reform that was once presented as central to the government’s vision for modernising the labour market.
The moment the policy first entered the public domain remains vivid. Sir Keir revealed his intentions during a conversation with me in September, as we took shelter from torrential rain in an exposed metal stairwell beside a colossal ship under construction at BAE Systems’ shipyard on the River Clyde in Glasgow.
Scrapping plans to make digital ID mandatory for workers across the UK marks a dramatic retreat from one of Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s flagship policy proposals announced last autumn. The decision represents a significant dilution of a reform that was once presented as central to the government’s vision for modernising the labour market.
The moment the policy first entered the public domain remains vivid. Sir Keir revealed his intentions during a conversation with me in September, as we took shelter from torrential rain in an exposed metal stairwell beside a colossal ship under construction at BAE Systems’ shipyard on the River Clyde in Glasgow.
That announcement, however, was largely eclipsed by the political storm brewing around then Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner. Within 24 hours of that rain-soaked exchange, Rayner had been forced out of her role, shifting media attention away from Starmer’s digital ID ambitions and onto deepening turmoil within the government.
