The Government has announced that digital ID or other digital documentation - such as passports and e-visas - will be accepted to prove someone's right to work
12:38, 14 Jan 2026Updated 12:38, 14 Jan 2026
After weeks of backlash, the Government has finally U-turned by watering down its plans for digital ID.
Labour minister Heidi Alexander confirmed a digital ID or other digital documentation, such as a biometric passport chip, would now be accepted in right-to-work checks. The Government had previously said a new identification card would be mandatory for anyone wanting to work in the UK.
Ms Alexander insisted: “Change is going to take time, but we are making progress.” Asked about plans to ditch digital ID, she told Sky News: “We are committed to having mandatory digital right-to-work checks.
“Now that might be that someone has the digital ID that the government makes freely available. It’s on their phone. They can use that to demonstrate their right to work in the country. Equally, it might be the check of a biometric chip in a passport, which is digitally done.”
She added: “At the moment, we’ve got a mish-mash of a paper system where no digital records are kept and that makes it very hard to properly target your enforcement operations against illegal working.”
Chancellor Rachel Reeves added that the Government is "pretty relaxed" about what form of digital documentation people use to prove their right to work amid the digital ID U-turn. She told BBC Breakfast: "On the digital ID, for starters, I do think this story has been a bit overwritten. We are saying that you will need mandatory digital ID to be able to work in the UK.
"Now the difference is whether that has to be one piece of ID, a digital ID card, or whether it could be an e-visa or an e-passport, and we're pretty relaxed about what form that takes."
Support for digital ID cards dropped from 35% in the early summer to -14% just after Mr Starmer announced his plans to introduce them ahead of Labour’s September annual conference.
In October, Keir Starmer vowed to push ahead with controversial digital ID plans despite their unpopularity with the public. The PM attempted to turn around the tide on public opinion and emphasise the benefits of the policy, such as using digital ID to buy alcohol after you turn 18 or to help students avoid having to dig out their birth certificates when they’re trying to rent a place at university.
It came after he initially unveiled the digital ID plans with an emphasis on making them mandatory for proving your right to work in the UK in a crackdown on illegal working.
In September, the PM said: “It has been too easy for people to enter the country, work in the shadow economy and remain illegally. We must be absolutely clear that tackling every aspect of the problem of illegal immigration is essential.” And he vowed: "You will not be able to work in the UK if you don't have a digital ID, it's as simple as that."
But concerns were raised by MPs and campaigners over civil liberties, state surveillance and privacy of data. In November MPs were told the Government's digital ID policy has been so badly botched that it is now "irrecoverable". Silki Carlo, director of pressure group Big Brother Watch, told the cross-party Home Affairs Select Committee: "I don't think anyone in this room genuinely believes that the mandatory digital ID is about illegal working."
And she continued: "I think that it's likely that the way that this announcement has been managed makes it irrecoverable for this government and potentially for the next five to 10 years."
A consultation on digital ID cards is set to be launched in the coming weeks on the plans.
The digital IDs - which would be stored on smartphones in GOV.UK’s wallet app - will allow employers or landlords to verify a citizen's right to live and work in the UK by making it easier for them to check someone’s immigration status. They would be checked against a central database of people entitled to live and work in the UK.