Britain’s next Prime Minister Andy Burnham will scrap the government’s digital identity scheme when he takes office on Monday, a spokesman for the new Labour leader said.
Instead, money allocated for the project would be diverted to Burnham’s priorities such as measures to help tackle the cost of living, the spokesperson said.
Burnham, who was elected leader of the governing Labour Party on Friday, will become Britain’s seventh prime minister in a decade when he succeeds Keir Starmer on Monday.
The ex-Greater Manchester mayor has vowed to stop the right-wing Reform UK party surging ahead in the polls by a large margin.
In September, Starmer announced proposals for a digital identity document for every worker, in a bid to combat illegal migration and push back against Reform UK. But in January the government dropped plans to make the scheme compulsory after a public outcry.
“Every minute and every penny that would have been spent on a national ID scheme will instead be spent where it is needed most, such as helping with the cost of living,” said a spokesman for Burnham.
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The digital ID scheme would cost about £1.8 billion ($2.4 billion) between the 2026/27 and 2028/29 financial years, the Office for Budget Responsibility estimated in November.
The scheme had been condemned by politicians of all stripes and a cross-party committee of legislators had described it as a “fiasco”.
Opposition Conservative MP Julia Lopez criticised the move: “Labour have wasted millions of pounds on this project and now Andy Burnham is trying to pretend he’s riding to the rescue.”
Britain abandoned identity cards after the Second World War and most people usually prove who they are with passports or driving licences.
