Keir Starmer says digital ID cards are an ‘enormous opportunity’ and will make it tougher to work illegally - UK politics live

Key events

Show key events only

Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature

Starmer’s plans envisage ID cards being stored on devices in the same way contactless payment cards or the NHS app are.

The digital ID would be the authoritative proof of identity and residency status in the UK and include name, date of birth, and a photo as well as information on nationality and residency status, reports the PA news agency.

How the scheme will work for those who do not use smartphones will be addressed as part of the consultation process.

Those who do not want to carry a digital ID card or do not operate digitally could be given a physical card instead, according to The Telegraph.

Mandatory ID cards have previously only existed during wartime.

Starmer says digital ID cards an 'enormous opportunity' for UK and will make working illegally tougher

Keir Starmer says plans for a new digital ID held on people’s phones will be an “enormous opportunity” for the UK and make working illegally tougher.

Digital ID will become mandatory as a means of proving the right to work under the plans, but people will not be required to carry or asked to produce it. It will be available to UK citizens and legal residents by the end of this parliament, reports the PA news agency.

Starmer said:

I know working people are worried about the level of illegal migration into this country. A secure border and controlled migration are reasonable demands, and this government is listening and delivering.

Digital ID is an enormous opportunity for the UK. It will make it tougher to work illegally in this country, making our borders more secure.

And it will also offer ordinary citizens countless benefits, like being able to prove your identity to access key services swiftly – rather than hunting around for an old utility bill.

Starmer admitted Labour has previously shied away from addressing concerns over immigration said it is now “essential” to tackle “every aspect of the problem of illegal immigration” in an article for The Telegraph.

The prime minister argued that it is possible to be concerned about immigration while rejecting Reform UK’s “toxic” approach. “There is no doubt that for years left-wing parties, including my own, did shy away from people’s concerns around illegal immigration,” he wrote.

Keir Starmer says plans for a new digital ID held on people’s phones will be an “enormous opportunity” for the UK and make working illegally tougher. Photograph: Lauren Hurley/No 10 Downing Street

Reform UK called the plans a “cynical ploy” designed to “fool” voters into thinking something is being done about immigration. Tory leader Kemi Badenoch also dismissed the plans as a “gimmick that will do nothing to stop the boats”.

The Liberal Democrats said they would not support mandatory digital ID where people are “forced to turn over their private data just to go about their daily lives”.

Meanwhile, Tony Blair’s thinktank said the cards, which will be mandatory by the end of this parliament, could act as a “gateway to government services”.

More on this story in a moment, but first here are some other developments:

• Ministers are pushing through powers to photograph, name and shame offenders who have been ordered to complete unpaid community work in England and Wales. The sentencing bill, now moving through parliament, will for the first time give probation officers “a legal power” to take and publish the names and pictures of individuals ordered by courts to tidy grass verges, litter-pick or scrub graffiti.

• Leading climate figures and Labour MPs have urged Keir Starmer to attend the crucial Cop30 climate summit this November, after aides advised him not to attend for fear of attracting the ire of the Reform party. Simon Stiell, the UN’s climate chief, said: “Cop30 is where leaders are expected to come and roll up their sleeves, make deals to help their nation’s economy transition faster, creating more jobs, and guide the world on what next steps we take together.”

• Britain will violate its nuclear disarmament obligations if Labour presses ahead with the £1bn purchase of 12 F-35A fighter jets, according to a specialist legal opinion prepared on behalf of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND). Two international lawyers argue that the government’s plan to reintroduce air-launched nuclear weapons for the RAF will break a key provision of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT) signed by the UK and 190 other countries.

• Hopes that international rail services could return to UK stations abandoned by Eurostar have grown, with the government backing new competitors who plan to serve stops in Kent. Ministers have been leaning on the rail regulator to give crucial space on the railway to prospective entrants who pledge to bring cross-Channel services back to Ashford and Ebbsfleet stations – and possibly London’s Stratford International.