Burnham drops digital ID scheme

Incoming ‌British prime minister Andy Burnham will scrap the government’s troubled plans for a digital ID scheme when he enters ​office on Monday, a spokesperson for the new Labour Party leader said.

Resources devoted to the scheme, deemed a “fiasco” by a cross-party committee of lawmakers, will be redirected to Burnham’s priorities, the spokesperson said.

Burnham, elected leader of the governing Labor Party on Friday, becomes Britain’s seventh ‌prime minister ‌in a decade on ​Monday, replacing ‌the unpopular ​Keir Starmer.

The ⁠former Greater Manchester mayor has pledged to halt the rise of the populist Reform UK, the right-wing party that has led British opinion polls by a wide margin.

Starmer in September launched plans for every employee to hold ⁠a digital identity document — an attempt to ‌tackle illegal migration and ‌counter Reform UK.

After a public ​backlash, Starmer dropped the ‌requirement that the ID be mandatory in ‌January.

“All the time and resources that were going to be spent on a national ID scheme will go instead to where it’s most needed, such as ‌helping with the cost of living,” Burnham’s spokesperson said.

In November, the Office for ⁠Budget ⁠Responsibility watchdog estimated the cost of the digital ID scheme at around £1.8 billion ($2.4 billion) between financial years 2026/27 and 2028/29.

“Labor has wasted millions of pounds on this project, and now Andy Burnham is trying to pretend he’s riding to the rescue,” Julia Lopez, a lawmaker from the opposition Conservative Party, said.

Identity cards were abolished in the UK after World War Two, and ​Britons typically use ​documents such as passports and driving licenses to prove their identity.