Andy Burnham to Scrap UK Digital ID Scheme

Key Points

• Incoming Prime Minister Andy Burnham will abandon plans for a government-issued digital ID for all British adults once he takes office.
• Burnham’s office says resources earmarked for the scheme will instead go towards “the daily priorities facing people across the country.”
• The decision follows separate plans announced by Burnham for new oil and gas drilling in the North Sea.
• Sir Keir Starmer had already scaled back the mandatory digital ID proposals for workers before standing down.
• The scheme was first proposed by Starmer ahead of Labour’s party conference last year, aimed at tackling illegal working and modernising public services.
• The Office for Budget Responsibility estimated the digital ID programme would cost £1.8 billion over three years, a figure Downing Street disputed.
• Almost three million people signed a parliamentary petition opposing the scheme, prompting the government to shift towards a voluntary approach in January.
• Cabinet Office minister Darren Jones had unveiled a voluntary “one stop” app allowing people to manage services such as childcare and tax returns.
• Home Affairs Committee Chair Dame Karen Bradley branded the rollout “nothing short of a fiasco” that risked government overreach into people’s lives.
• Andy Burnham is due to become prime minister on Monday after meeting King Charles III.
• Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has criticised Burnham’s approach to government as “airy fairy” and questioned his grasp of national priorities.

London (Britain Today News) July 18, 2026 — Incoming Prime Minister Andy Burnham is set to scrap plans for a government-issued digital ID for all British adults once he takes office, redirecting the resources involved towards easing the cost of living for households across the country. The decision, confirmed by Burnham’s office, comes shortly after separate plans for new oil and gas drilling in the North Sea were revealed, and marks one of the clearest early signals of how the incoming Labour leader intends to reshape government priorities once he formally succeeds Sir Keir Starmer.

Burnham is due to take up residence in Downing Street on Monday, after travelling to Buckingham Palace to be formally invited by King Charles III to form a government. His office has confirmed that dropping the digital ID scheme will be among the new administration’s first acts, with officials describing it as a reprioritisation of public spending towards more immediate concerns facing ordinary households.

What has Andy Burnham announced about the digital ID scheme?

Burnham’s incoming administration has confirmed that plans for a mandatory, government-issued digital ID for all adults in Britain will be shelved entirely once he enters Downing Street. The scheme, which had already been scaled back once under Starmer, will now be abandoned altogether rather than reformed further. A spokesperson for Burnham’s office said the change would mean

“redirecting the resources earmarked for the scheme towards people’s everyday priorities.”

Why is Burnham scrapping the digital ID scheme now?

According to Burnham’s office, the decision reflects a broader shift in emphasis for the incoming government, away from large-scale national infrastructure projects and towards issues that voters say affect them most directly, such as household bills, wages and the general cost of living. The timing of the announcement, made in the days before Burnham formally takes office, suggests the new prime minister wants to use his opening days in Downing Street to demonstrate a distinct break from Starmer’s policy agenda.

What did Burnham’s spokesperson say about the decision?

Explaining the rationale behind the move, a spokesperson for Burnham’s office said the “time and resource” previously allocated to the national identity scheme would instead be channelled towards areas judged to be “most needed, such as helping with the cost of living.” The spokesperson added that the change represented

“a change in direction towards improving everyday life and strengthening local economies over expensive national government schemes.”

The framing places the decision firmly within a wider narrative that Burnham’s team has sought to build in the run-up to his premiership: that government resources should be visibly and immediately tied to household concerns, rather than long-term administrative reform.

How did the digital ID scheme originate under Keir Starmer?

The digital ID proposal was first introduced by Sir Keir Starmer ahead of Labour’s party conference last year, at a time when the party was seeking to respond to public pressure over immigration enforcement and the modernisation of public services. It was envisaged as a system that would give every adult a verified digital identity, usable both for proving the right to work in the UK and for accessing a range of government services online.

Why did Starmer want to introduce digital ID in the UK?

Starmer had argued that a mandatory digital ID for workers would make it easier for the authorities to clamp down on people working illegally in the UK, closing a loophole that has long been cited by critics of the immigration system. Beyond enforcement, Starmer also presented the scheme as a modernising measure, suggesting it would allow citizens to prove their identity to access key services quickly, rather than having to locate paperwork such as utility bills. Under his leadership, the government had already begun watering down elements of the mandatory proposals for workers before he left office.

How much would the digital ID scheme have cost taxpayers?

Cost was a persistent point of contention throughout the scheme’s development. The Office for Budget Responsibility estimated in November that the programme would cost £1.8 billion over three years, a figure that Downing Street rejected as inaccurate at the time. The dispute over projected costs became one of several flashpoints in the politics debate surrounding the policy, feeding criticism from opposition parties and backbench Labour MPs alike about whether the scheme represented good value for public money.

Why did the government water down its digital ID plans in January?

Public opposition to the scheme proved substantial. In January, after almost three million people signed a parliamentary petition opposing the introduction of digital IDs, the government altered its approach significantly. Rather than pressing ahead with a mandatory national scheme, Cabinet Office minister Darren Jones unveiled a voluntary alternative. Jones said the new system could eventually allow people to manage a range of everyday tasks, from childcare arrangements to filing tax returns, through a single “one stop” app, rather than through compulsory registration.

What did the Home Affairs Committee say about the digital ID rollout?

Scrutiny of the scheme intensified soon after the shift to a voluntary model. Home Affairs Committee Chair Dame Karen Bradley said the government had been right in principle to pursue digital ID but had mishandled its introduction. In a report examining the committee’s investigation into the launch and subsequent changes to policy, Dame Karen described the government’s handling of the plans as “nothing short of a fiasco,” warning that the episode had “raised fears of government over-reach into people’s lives.”

Her comments added to a growing body of parliamentary criticism directed at the scheme’s rollout, with concerns raised not only about cost and public trust but also about the pace and clarity of communication from ministers throughout the process.

What other major policy change is Burnham expected to announce?

The update on digital ID follows closely on the heels of separate reports that Burnham will announce plans for new oil and gas drilling in the North Sea once he becomes prime minister. Labour’s 2024 general election manifesto, which the incoming leader has said he intends to follow, pledged not to issue new drilling licences but committed to honouring those already granted.

While the precise details of Burnham’s North Sea plans have not yet been made public, he is expected to uphold that manifesto commitment. This could see the incoming government move to accelerate development under existing licences, many of which have remained largely undeveloped for a variety of commercial and logistical reasons despite approval in recent years.

When will Andy Burnham officially become prime minister?

Burnham is scheduled to formally become prime minister on Monday, following his audience with King Charles III, at which the King will invite him to form a government in line with constitutional convention. His office has indicated that scrapping the digital ID scheme will be among the very first announcements of the new administration, signalling an intent to move quickly on visible policy changes from day one.

How has the Conservative Party reacted to Burnham’s plans?

Not all reaction to Burnham’s early positioning has been favourable. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch used an interview for Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg to warn that the incoming prime minister’s plans for government are “airy fairy.” Badenoch accused Burnham of failing to grasp “what the country’s priorities are” and argued that the country instead needs a leader prepared to “take tough decisions.”

Her comments reflect a wider effort by the Conservatives to frame Burnham’s opening moves in office as short on substance, even as his allies present the scrapping of digital ID as evidence of a government willing to act decisively on cost of living concerns from the outset.

How significant a policy reversal does this represent for Labour?

The decision to scrap digital ID entirely, rather than continue reshaping it, marks a notable departure from the trajectory Labour had followed since the scheme was first floated. What began as a flagship modernisation pledge, tied closely to immigration enforcement and public service reform, had already been diluted once under Starmer in response to the parliamentary petition and mounting scrutiny. Burnham’s move to abandon the project outright, rather than pursue a scaled-back version, suggests his incoming government is keen to draw a firmer line under a policy that had become politically contentious well before he took charge.

For a party keen to demonstrate unity after a change in leadership, publicly reversing a signature initiative of the previous prime minister carries risk as well as opportunity. Supporters of the move argue it shows a government responsive to public concern and willing to reallocate funding towards more immediate priorities. Critics, meanwhile, may point to the scrapping of a scheme that consumed considerable ministerial time and public debate as evidence of wasted effort during Starmer’s tenure — an argument likely to feature in future exchanges between the two main parties.
Explore More about Politics:
Sadiq Khan Peerage Sparks Divided Reactions in London Politics
Andy Burnham Becomes Labour Leader, Vows Britain’s ‘Most Significant Change’ in 40 Years

What has been the public reaction to the digital ID scheme so far?

Public sentiment towards the digital ID proposal has been a recurring feature of the wider debate since it was first announced. The scale of the parliamentary petition opposing the scheme — signed by close to three million people — was widely regarded at Westminster as one of the clearest indicators of public unease over the plans, and was a significant factor in the government’s decision to move towards a voluntary model in January. That shift, overseen by Darren Jones, was itself an attempt to balance the stated ambitions of digital modernisation against concerns about compulsion, data security and state overreach.

Even after the move to a voluntary approach, unease persisted in some quarters, feeding into the Home Affairs Committee’s subsequent inquiry and its findings on the handling of the rollout. Burnham’s decision to abandon the scheme altogether is likely to be read by many of those who signed the petition as a direct response to that sustained public pressure, even though his office has framed the announcement primarily in terms of cost of living priorities rather than a response to the petition itself.

What happens next for the digital ID scheme and Burnham’s government?

With Burnham confirmed to take office on Monday, attention will now turn to how quickly his government moves to formally wind down the digital ID infrastructure that has already been developed, and how the freed-up funding is redirected in practice. Ministers within the incoming administration are expected to set out further detail on cost of living measures in the days following Burnham’s appointment, alongside the anticipated announcement on North Sea licensing.

For campaigners who opposed the scheme, including the millions who signed the parliamentary petition earlier this year, the announcement will likely be viewed as a significant, if not entirely unexpected, victory. For supporters of digital identity reform, however, the decision raises fresh questions about how the UK will approach identity verification, illegal working enforcement and digital public services without the national scheme that had been years in the making under the previous leadership.

As Burnham prepares to cross the threshold of Downing Street for the first time as prime minister, the digital ID decision stands as an early marker of the priorities he intends to set — and a clear point of departure from the policy direction charted by his predecessor.