Digital id’s scrapped

[babylamb4]

Oh thank god for that. Best news of 2026 so far.

What a surprise.

Did people really think it would actually happen? I remember talking at work about it when it was first mooted and no one expected that it would come to anything

Genuinely unexpected, but fantastic news! Well done to everyone who signed that petition and made their voices heard 👏👏

13th U turn.

Forgot all about this. Was never going to be a goer.

How much are tax payers shelling out to pay for these useless MPs and their continuous incompetence. Urgh.

Great news, but one has to ask why this Government seems unable to stick to any of their policies?

I didnt expect it to happen.

In part because the roll out cost would be phenomenal and unless they were free there is no way everyone would get one, so it wouldnt work anyway. Even fewer would get them if they cost £100 like passports do.

Crazy idea.

Agreed.

I wanted Labour (although didnt vote for them because it doesnt work like that here). Theyve rolled over so easily - some ideas were.just ridiculous and some unfair and needed change. Others theyve just given in to. Honestly they are about as solid as block of butter in summer

Omg when it said 'ministers drop plans for digital IDs', on the BBC I read drop as launching. Like, here's the latest drop.

its all on your iphone anyway.

Great news- I think there was a risk that it would drive people to vote reform in the Welsh Senedd elections . Reeeeeally hoping they don't.

Digital ID has not been dropped.

The requirement to provide Digital ID in order to be able to work in the UK has been dropped.

It's only one aspect of the entire policy.

No they haven't. The compulsory to have them to work element has been scrapped. I will opt in , it's an efficient method that works in other countries as ID

The requirement to have one to work in the UK was the only compulsory reason to have one anyway, so without that it’s dead in the water. It will never gain enough traction to be useful, and will become another white elephant systems project that fails.

If the Governemnt had any sense they’d have started by making it compulsory in order to claim any benefits. Ironically the public would have then have probably been completely in favour! But, as we know, the Government lacks any political nouse at all…and continues to misjudge public opinion, and that of its MPs, and therefore struggles to implement any of its polices.

Not for a lot of us

Exactly! I swear their U-turn is more scary than just going through with it. It means they have moved onto their contingency plan.

Great news on the work front but it's not been dropped. It'll rear its ugly head again.

I do agree- only read the full details this morning.

You're so right that framing it as 'we're going to make it harder for immigrants to WORK' was possibly the most politically foolish spin they could have chosen. I listened back to Starmer's speech on it and couldn't believe it. Even with all his mistakes I actually like having a boring grafter as PM but can't he just get better advice as he can't spin anything to save his life.

I have an Android phone thankfully don't have to worry about that

A requirement for compulsory ID cards surfaces once every 10 years in the UK. It always fails because it is too expensive, unnecessary for the vast majority of voters and unpopular with many. Data security is an added concern now.

Got a wallet with information in it?

Good. We don’t need it, and the chances of the government being able to pull off an IT project of that magnitude without cocking it up and wasting billions of pounds was exactly zero.

They're still spending all the money on setting it up, but are making it optional instead of compulsory. For now.

Oh God. That’ll go well then…