Sir Keir Starmer is facing mounting fury over plans to extend his controversial Digital ID scheme to children as young as 13, with critics warning Britain is sleepwalking into a surveillance state.
The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, which is overseeing the rollout of the so-called “Brit Cards”, confirmed ministers will consult on lowering the age threshold from the initially proposed 16 years old. The revelation has intensified backlash against the Prime Minister’s digital identity programme, with more than 2.8 million people now signing a petition opposing the scheme.
Silkie Carlo, director of civil liberties group Big Brother Watch, launched a scathing attack on the government’s proposals, accusing Starmer of misleading the public about the true scope of the digital ID system.
“Starmer has sold his Orwellian digital ID scheme to the public on the lie that it will only be used to stop illegal working but now the truth, buried in the small print, is becoming clear,” she said.
Carlo warned that digital ID was “fast becoming a digital permit required to live our everyday lives” and could form the backbone of a surveillance state controlling everything from tax and pensions to banking and education.
“The prospects of enrolling even children into this sprawling biometric system is sinister, unjustified and prompts the chilling question of just what he thinks the ID will be used for in the future,” she added. “No one voted for this and millions of people who have signed the petition against it are simply being ignored.”
The government’s official explainer document, published on 26 September, states the digital ID “is expected to be rolled out to all UK citizens and legal residents by the end of this Parliament” and will initially be available to those aged 16 and over. However, it crucially adds: “although we will consider through consultation if this should be age 13 and over”.
The scheme will become mandatory for right to work checks by the end of the current Parliament, meaning all employees will need to show their Digital ID to prove they can legally work in the UK. The free smartphone-based system will store users’ names, dates of birth, nationality or residency status, and a photo for biometric security.
Over time, the digital ID is set to expand far beyond employment checks. Government documents reveal it will provide access to public services including benefits, tax records, education, childcare applications, and could even be used for age verification when purchasing alcohol or proving identity at polling stations.
Starmer has defended the plan during his current trade visit to India, where he met with Nandan Nilekani, the architect of India’s controversial Aadhaar biometric database covering more than a billion citizens. The Prime Minister insisted the scheme was essential to tackle illegal immigration.
“On Digital ID, let me be really clear, we have made a commitment to do whatever we can to stop people arriving illegally in the UK,” Starmer told journalists in Mumbai. One of the issues is the ability people have to work in our economy illegally. We have to do something about that, we can’t shirk that. We had a strong manifesto commitment to deal with it.”
The Prime Minister added that the “vast majority of people in the UK” wanted the issue gripped and argued that “digital ID is an enormous opportunity for the UK”.
Speaking to reporters, Starmer said his proposed smartphone-based ID was needed to “address the fact that too many people can come to this country to work illegally”. He suggested the government should make the case for people to use it beyond just employment, saying “it would be a good passport”.
However, critics across the political spectrum have united in opposition to the plans. Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who now leads the newly formed Your Party, said he “firmly opposes” the compulsory digital ID cards, calling them “an affront to our civil liberties” that will make life “even more difficult and dangerous” for minorities.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage also voiced strong opposition, arguing on social media: “It will make no difference to illegal immigration, but it will be used to control and penalise the rest of us. The state should never have this much power.”
Conservative Shadow Business Secretary Andrew Griffith warned the scheme posed a “hammer blow to British business”, claiming it would force “every corner shop, petrol station and small retailer” to police customers’ purchases, turning shop counters into checkpoints.
Public support for the digital ID has collapsed since Starmer’s announcement. YouGov polling for The Guardian found net support fell from plus 35 per cent in the summer to minus 14 per cent after the Prime Minister’s speech, with 58 per cent of those who think Starmer is doing a bad job opposing the scheme.
The petition against Digital ID, which has surpassed 2.8 million signatures including more than 3,200 in Starmer’s own constituency of Holborn and St Pancras, has forced a government response. The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology defended the proposals, stating: “We will introduce a digital ID within this Parliament to help tackle illegal migration, make accessing government services easier, and enable wider efficiencies.”
The government insists it will not be compulsory to obtain a digital ID but acknowledges “it will be mandatory for some applications”. Officials claim the system will use state-of-the-art encryption stored directly on users’ devices, similar to banking apps and the NHS App.
However, concerns about data security remain acute. India’s Aadhaar system, which Starmer has praised as a “massive success”, suffered a major breach in 2018 when personal details of citizens were downloaded and sold online for less than £6.
Carlo’s organisation has launched a campaign demanding legal protection for the right to use non-digital ID, warning that without such safeguards the scheme amounts to “a mandatory ID system in all but name”.
The proposal to extend coverage to 13-year-olds has raised particular alarm. Critics question why teenagers who do not pay taxes, claim benefits, or legally work would need digital IDs at all, suggesting it represents a deliberate stepping stone toward universal biometric tracking beginning in childhood.
A government spokesman defended the age consultation, telling reporters: “When you set out radical, ambitious public service reform it is natural for people to have thoughts and we obviously acknowledge them.”
The spokesman added that work was underway to draw up design and technical details to ensure the scheme “is inclusive, fair and follows best practice for security and data privacy”. A public consultation is due to launch later this year before legislation is introduced to Parliament.
The plan echoes Tony Blair’s failed attempt to introduce ID cards in the 2000s, which was eventually scrapped by the coalition government in 2010 after widespread public opposition and spiralling costs estimated in the billions.
During his India visit, Starmer’s spokesman said the half-hour meeting with Nilekani gave the Prime Minister a chance to hear how the Indian system had been “useful” for managing services such as welfare, though he noted Britain’s digital ID would not necessarily copy India’s biometric data usage.
Civil liberties groups have warned that the sensitive information held on each person, from tax to health data drawn from multiple government departments, would create “a honeypot for hackers” and fundamentally alter the relationship between citizen and state.
With Parliament set to debate the petition and opposition mounting from across the political divide, Starmer faces a critical test of his authority as he attempts to push through one of the most controversial policies of his premiership. The proposed inclusion of children as young as 13 in the scheme has only intensified fears that Britain is sliding toward what critics describe as an Orwellian database state.
The Prime Minister has shown no sign of backing down, insisting during his India trip that the government must “take the measures necessary” to tackle illegal immigration, regardless of public concern over civil liberties and privacy.
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Image Credit:
Keir Starmer — image from Wikimedia Commons (election infobox), licensed under CC BY 4.0
