Starmer’s digital ID cards won’t work and will be costly, voters say

The public are ‘overwhelmingly against’ Sir Keir Starmer’s mandatory digital ID scheme, according to new research.

Focus groups carried out by pollster Lord Ashcroft found that voters of ‘all political backgrounds’ oppose the policy announced by the Prime Minister last month.

The interviews with more than 60 people in Sheffield, Bradford, Peterborough and Northampton revealed that they believed Digital ID would be ineffective, costly, a hacking risk – and used to control behaviour.

They disputed the Government’s original justification for the policy – that right to work checks would help tackle illegal immigration – as unscrupulous employers would continue to ignore the rules.

One focus group attendee asked: ‘Can you see the guys in the carwash having digital IDs? The people who employ them aren’t going to ask for digital IDs anyway. They don’t care.’

Others believed the Government would ‘end up charging’ for Digital ID and questioned what the system would mean for ‘old people’ who ‘don’t have smartphones’.

Many believed ministers were hiding their true intentions, claiming ‘it’s to do with having more control’ and that ‘they’ll want to know what you’re spending, who you’re spending with, what you’re getting paid’.

One person likened it to the Covid passport, under which Britons were forced to prove they had been vaccinated in order to attend travel abroad or enter some venues, while another said it would be like the system in China with people automatically fined for misdemeanours.

Protesters march against UK Government’s plan to introduce a digital identification card in central in London, United Kingdom on October 18, 2025

And there were widespread fears that Digital ID would be at risk of hacking breaches which the Government could not prevent.

One interviewee said: ‘Your driving licence, your passport, your bank record, are all in separate places. This is putting it all in one pot.’

Another highlighted major cyber attacks on Jaguar Land Rover and the NHS and asked: ‘Now we’re meant to expect the government to protect all of this?’

It came as Britain’s data watchdog assured MPs he would monitor the introduction of Digital ID.

Information Commissioner John Edwards told worried members of the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee: ‘You can be assured that the ICO will be there, informing those choices, to avoid the kind of dystopian outcome that you’re rightly concerned about.’

Asked if citizens had the right not to be included in digital data, he replied: ‘The UK is probably the second-most surveilled nation in the world. I simply cannot avoid shedding my digital ID dozens of times a day as I go about my business.

‘You can try and pay with cash, try getting on a bus and pay in cash these days. I genuinely don’t know how you could achieve that.

Asked how the Government could show competence in keeping people’s ID safe, Mr Edwards said: ‘I think that’s absolutely critical to the success of any such scheme.

‘You can legislate all you want, but these systems won’t work unless people trust them.’