Government Drops Plans For Mandatory Digital Id To Work In Uk

The government has dropped plans requiring workers to sign up to a new digital ID system in order to prove their right to work in the UK.

Instead, Labour ministers say existing checks, using documents such as biometric passports, will move fully online by 2029.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said Sir Keir Starmer was "clueless" and showing "no sense of direction whatsoever".

Business Secretary Peter Kyle said it showed the need for Labour ministers to better justify the reasons behind new measures.

"What I am concerned about is we get better at explaining our policies, we get better at showing the relevance of it," he told BBC 2's Politics Live.

The reversal is in the latest in a series of U-turns in recent weeks, including on inheritance tax for farmland and business rates for pubs.

Speaking at Prime Minster's Questions, the Tory leader welcomed the government's climbdown, branding the initial digital ID plan a "rubbish policy".

But she said the change of approach showed Sir Keir was "blowing around like a plastic bag in the wind", predicting that Labour would next U-turn on its controversial plans to scale back jury trials.

The prime minister hit back by pointing to policy reversals and ministerial churn under the previous government, accusing the Conservatives of having "crashed the economy" during their time in office.

"I'm determined to make it harder for people to work illegally in this country and that's why there will be checks, they will be digital, and they will be mandatory," he added.

Source: HackerNews