Burnham’s move to scrap UK digital ID plans sparks excitement and criticism | Political Affairs

London, United Kingdom As soon as King Charles III invited Andy Burnham to form a government on Monday, the incoming Prime Minister will scrap the UK’s digital ID system, ending one of Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s controversial policies.

The decision, which was announced by Burnham’s office, does not end the government’s digital transformation plan. Instead, it abandons the concept of government-sponsored information and maintains private digital services.

The digital ID scheme, which was first announced last September, would have required all UK residents to have a digital identity card – called the “BritCard” – which was originally designed as a formality to check eligibility for work.

He faced constant opposition from the beginning. A parliamentary petition against the move gathered nearly three million signatures, one of the largest in British history, prompting the government to abandon the plan in January in favor of a voluntary plan.

That agreement did not resolve the dispute. Critics warned that the scheme threatened to expand beyond immigration checks to areas such as health care, banking and travel, while supporters said it would reform public services and reduce fraud.

At the weekend, Burnham’s office said the $2.4bn (1.8bn pounds) planned for the scheme over the next three years – about $807m (600m pounds) a year – would instead be sent to priorities such as “supporting the cost of living”.

The decision is controversial. Burnham was the Home Secretary who oversaw the initial introduction of Labor Prime Minister Tony Blair’s first identity scheme in 2006, before it was scrapped in 2010. This was criticized for its lifetime cost which reached several billion pounds.

Campaigners have declared victory – but say the fight is far from over

For Elizabeth Anderson, head of the Digital Poverty Alliance, a British charity, the collapse of the scheme is good news, but for different reasons than the human rights concerns that have driven much of the debate.

He said the proposal raised serious questions for the estimated 19 million British adults who are not registered online due to a lack of equipment, connectivity or skills. His organization’s research has found that one in five adults would use government services online with someone else’s help. He added that the government’s proposed system – of directing people to libraries and post offices for help – is “impossible if people need to use this at home, on the go, or during opening hours”.

Anderson said the policy’s major disagreements reflect a long-standing lack of trust in how the government works and changes personal information, which is combined with “changes in information and the lack of a clear and compelling case for how it will help a person down the road.”

This combination, he said, left Britons already off the internet – often the most vulnerable – worried about what digital ID would mean for them.

Not everyone in the digital integration community saw the policy as harmful, Anderson acknowledged. Some organizations hope that it will “highlight the importance of digital inclusion” and open up new investments.

But he doubted that the money saved to end the program will reach the people who need it the most. What Britain needs, he said, is sustainable, long-term investment: digital commitment in every local government, community funding, teacher training to build young people’s digital confidence and providing keyboard equipment to every child as education moves online.

Human rights activists have hailed the decision as a victory, albeit with caveats. Alan Miller, co-founder of the campaign group Together, said the announcement was welcome but “our work is not done”, citing other online government systems which he said could evolve into “a digital ID through greater scale”.

Supporters call it a missed opportunity

Not everyone has welcomed the changes in the British government.

The Tony Blair Institute, which has been supporting digital ID, previously described the process as “too late” and warned it would be “another failed IT project” due to poor delivery, in a statement from its director of government innovation, Alexander Iosad.

Labor Together, the think tank whose white 2025 report laid much of the foundation for the BritCard, said a digital national identity could end the “unrecognition” of people with unclear immigration records and help prevent a repeat of the Windrush scandal.