Sir Keir Starmer to face MPs after digital ID U-turn

Sir Keir Starmer will face MPs for Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday after his Government signalled another U-turn over digital IDs.

The Prime Minister’s weekly appearance in the Commons follows an apparent admission that the flagship policy will no longer be mandatory for right-to-work checks.

It is the latest in a series of U-turns by the Labour Government, including last week’s decision to provide additional support for pubs facing large hikes in business rates.

And news of the climbdown came just hours after Health Secretary Wes Streeting told a conference in London that ministers should aim to “get it right first time”.

Opposition parties, while welcoming the decision, have already used the U-turn to attack Sir Keir.

The Conservatives said Labour’s “only consistent policy is retreat” and the Liberal Democrats suggested Downing Street was “bulk ordering motion sickness tablets” to cope with so many changes of direction.

Announcing the plan on the eve of last year’s Labour Party conference, Sir Keir said people “will not be able to work in the United Kingdom” if they did not have digital ID as part of a bid to crack down on illegal immigration.

But on Tuesday, Government officials insisted it had always been the case that details of the digital ID scheme would be set out after a consultation.

A Government spokesman said: “We are committed to mandatory digital right to work checks.

“Currently right-to-work checks include a hodgepodge of paper-based systems with no record of checks ever taking place. This is open to fraud and abuse.

“We have always been clear that details on the digital ID scheme will be set out following a full public consultation, which will launch shortly.”

The change leaves open the possibility that digital right-to-work checks could involve other forms of ID, while the digital ID programme would be entirely voluntary.

Go Conservative Party chairman Kevin Hollinrake said: “Labour’s only consistent policy is retreat and it’s the public that are paying the price for a government defined by reversal.

“Labour entered office without a plan and now lacks the backbone to stand by their own decisions – lurching from one U-turn to the next as the consequences of their choices become clear.

“The country is living with the fallout of that weakness, and many voters will be wishing they could make a U-turn of their own on electing this failing Labour Government.”

Support for digital ID collapsed in the wake of Sir Keir’s announcement, falling from 53% in June to just 31% in October.

Liberal Democrat Cabinet Office spokeswoman Lisa Smart said: “Number 10 must be bulk ordering motion sickness tablets at this rate to cope with all their U-turns.

“It was clear right from the start this was a proposal doomed to failure, that would have cost obscene amounts of taxpayers’ money to deliver absolutely nothing.”