Next UK prime minister Andy Burnham drops digital ID scheme

MANCHESTER, England - Incoming British prime minister Andy Burnham will scrap the government’s troubled plans for a digital ID scheme when he enters office on July 20, a spokesperson for the new Labour Party leader said.

Resources devoted to the scheme - deemed a “fiasco” by a cross-party committee of lawmakers - will be redirected to Burnham’s priorities, the spokesperson said.

Burnham - elected leader of the governing Labour Party on July 17 - becomes Britain’s seventh prime minister in a decade on July 20, replacing the unpopular Keir Starmer.

The former Greater Manchester mayor has pledged to halt the rise of the populist Reform UK, the right-wing party that has led British opinion polls by a wide margin.

Starmer in September launched plans for every employee to hold a digital identity document - an attempt to tackle illegal migration and counter Reform UK.

After a public backlash, Starmer dropped the requirement that the ID be mandatory in January.

“All the time and resource that was going to be spent on a national ID scheme will go instead to where it’s most needed, such as helping with the cost of living,” Burnham’s spokesperson said.

In November, the Office for Budget Responsibility watchdog estimated the cost of the digital ID scheme at around £1.8 billion (S$3.1 billion) between financial years 2026/27 and 2028/29.

“Labour have wasted millions of pounds on this project and now Andy Burnham is trying to pretend he’s riding to the rescue,” Julia Lopez, a lawmaker from the opposition Conservative Party, said.

Identity cards were abolished in the UK after World War II, and Britons typically use documents such as passports and driving licences to prove their identity. REUTERS