Rights groups urge UK PM Starmer to abandon plans for mandatory digital ID
58 comments
·September 24, 2025stringsandchars
physicsguy
> There's a constant requirement for paperwork to prove who I am - always in the form of items that are 100% digital nowadays in the Nordic countries (like a "utility bill" or a "credit card statement" - on paper, posted by snail-mail to my home address!)
These are always digital in the UK too. When I did my mortgage application I had to go to my bank, ask them to print me out a statement and then stamp it to 'verify' that it was real.
worldsayshi
Swede here. I would not want to go back to days without BankID and related tools. That being said, the implementation has some less than desirable features. It's privately owned by some kind of joint venture by the banks. It only supports the major OS:s. So you're pretty much forced to own a Android or IPhone to function. Also, I haven't had the need to do this myself but taking care of somebody else's legal dealings (like an old parent or children) I understand is quite cumbersome. I think that kids are kind of forced to get BankID when they are quite young.
There are alternative implementations but I'm not aware of anyone that uses them.
It's more like we've slipped into this solution out of pure convenience than having made a deliberate choice.
martinald
The UK already has (various) digital IDs but this is the 'new' one https://www.gov.uk/using-your-gov-uk-one-login. So what's going to be different? Just making it mandatory?
I can see some justification (sorta) for not making it mandatory, but saying it won't improve citizens lives is complete rubbish. Having one login for all government services would massively improve the efficiency, especially if other departments can share data (with consent ala oauth) with each other. Even in the NHS itself this would be a huge boon, if you get referred to two different NHS trusts they basically cannot see any other data. If all medical records could be linked to an ID (that is more sophisticated access control wise than the NHS number) it would actually be a huge boon for privacy/audit/logging.
OJFord
Government website login isn't really a 'digital ID' is it? I've never thought of it like that anyway - could be used as one, maybe, but it isn't currently. E.g. you say this would help the NHS - well gov.uk login isn't any different from NHS app login is it? So the NHS already has 'digital ID' too.
(Don't expect this to solve multi-computer-system NHS though, ha! That's been tried and failed how many times, for how many billions? At least we have the app now, such as it is, I suppose.)
sksksk
One Login is an "authentication" system, an oAuth provider with identity added on. This means you can prove your identity once (to various levels of confidence, as defined in GPG45 [1]), and use that same verification across different government services.
When people talk about a national ID system, they're often talking about some form of "authorization", i.e. proving that you are entitled to certain things.
There currently isn't a system in the UK that can definitively prove that you have access to every service. For example, even being a British citizen and having a British passport doesn't automatically entitle you to access the NHS.
[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/identity-proofing...
maleldil
Brazil has a similar system (gov.br), which provides access to almost everything you might need from the government, including notary services, public healthcare records, driver's licenses, consulate services abroad, income tax, social security, unemployment benefits, welfare benefits, and more.
I also understand the privacy argument that arises from consolidating all these systems, and I'm generally pro-privacy, including in some extreme cases. However, this service makes life so much easier across many dimensions of daily life, and I think it's worth it. I can only hope that the GOV.UK login achieves a fraction of this.
willvarfar
Digital ID works great in the nordic countries and doubtless elsewhere.
tokai
It works. No need to call it great. Just the other month 35.000 danes lost access to their digital id because their phones are running too old android. There are edge cases where people get locked out of the system without access to public services, and why it is resolvable it can result in missed benefits and inturn missed rent payments.
I myself have experienced being between housing, and wasn't able to access my digital ID without an address, which I could only get if I could access my e-banking and pay deposit for my new place, but I needed digital ID to access the bank. It got resolved. But its a completely avoidable chaos that mainly is an issue for those with the least resources.
worldsayshi
It certainly works and is very convenient but there's certainly room for improvement on the privacy and agency front.
jjani
Does it require using a Google or Apple product?
willvarfar
Generally, yeah, to use the online government and financial services in Sweden need BankID, which is almost always on your mobile phone. You can also use a PC, although that is fading away.
ID cards are also a thing, and in principle every grownup should always be carrying ID although its not like everybody really does when walking around the park etc.
There are paper and in-person alternatives to the online services, but the ease and prevalence of the online services makes those actually relatively efficient. The times I've had to do something in person has all been slick.
I think underneath the key concept is that everyone has a unique ID number and means to prove it's them. 99% of the time that ends up being Mobile BankID.
username332211
> Generally, yeah, to use the online government and financial services in Sweden need BankID, which is almost always on your mobile phone.
Can someone explain to me why phones seem to be considered more secure than online communication channels or desktops? The way I see it, it's a computing device you install all sorts of crap on, sourced from all sorts of questionably trustworthy sources (especially as all sort of retail companies have started moving from loyalty cards to apps).
The Estonian solution from the early 2000s - a dedicated identification device, seems far more secure and reasonable than the modern Swedish one. If any bank in my area started offering YubiKey in leu of app authentication, I'd switch to it in a heartbeat.
kawsper
The most common version does (in Denmark), but you can get a code display to login if you want: https://www.mitid.dk/en-gb/get-started-with-mitid/how-to-use...
nemomarx
Why is the UK politics scene so focused on digital ID? Blair first proposed it and I feel like I've heard about it continually since with no progress. Different justifications every time too
physicsguy
Because 20 years later, everyone has given their data away on TikTok anyway and we're still dealing with the same issues with different digital government ID numbers that aren't joined together at all.
I have (that I remember, probably more):
National Insurance Number
NHS Number
Unique Taxpayer Reference number
A student loan Customer Reference Number account number
A passport number
A government gateway ID number
A driving license number
An account with the land registry
ronsor
That isn't too different from America, where you have a social security number, driver's license number, passport number (possibly two if you also have a passport card), and any other random identification the government demands.
rainingmonkey
The Tony Blair Institute still wields a lot of power in UK politics, and they're still pushing for ID cards.
https://institute.global/insights/tech-and-digitalisation/to...
evertedsphere
>institute.global
hubris
binarymax
The real question is why do all UK politicians, no matter their party, hate people so much?
ronsor
The real question is "why do all politicians hate people so much?"; and the answer is power and money.
pjc50
Newspapers. And the lurking pool of resentment of fellow Brits from many, especially older, voters.
that_guy_iain
Because the UK does not have a national ID system like nearly every other country in Europe, the reason it goes nowhere is that it costs money and no one wants to spend the money on it.
nmeofthestate
I don't think so. I think it raises peoples' hackles because it is "not something we do here" - English-speaking countries seem to not go with mandatory ID in the same way as continental Europe. Maybe a Napoleonic/Common-Law thing?
(Personally, I don't object to the idea).
OJFord
And entrenched (if fading, perhaps) cultural opposition to it.
mytailorisrich
The new justification (to deter illegal immigration) is expecially obviously bogus because, as the law stands, people must already prove their "right to work" to get a job and their "right to rent" to rent accommodation. Illegal immigrants manage, they would manage, too, with digital IDs because some employers and landlords are fine exploiting them. Or the plan is in fact to be asked "papers, please" where ever you go and whatever you do.
davzie
This is really easy to fake though and employers kind of have to take your word for it that the documentation you provide is real. I'm assuming a digital ID scheme will just bring all the data together and make it instantly verifiable for employers. I would normally be suspicious about this sort of thing but I do think a lack of a single entity bringing all the data together is limiting us technologically in the UK. What Estonia have done is awesome, it'd be cool for us to work toward something like that!
davzie
I have had many jobs and scenarios where I need to provide proof of residency and I have never once had a share code like you mention @mytailorisrich like this. The reality is that it doesn't happen like this. Usually about 6 months into your job someone forgets you haven't done the necessary checks and reaches out for you to send a couple of sketchy photos of your IDs so they can upload it to their HR system and forget about it.
nemomarx
Why do they have to take your word for it? if you present a few forms of id (drivers license, etc) can't those be checked against a central DB?
is someone forging physical ID cards and also getting them real numbers somehow?
mytailorisrich
No, it is not easy to fake.
As @vinay427 mentioned this is most digital now so you get a "share code" from the Home Office, which you provide to your prospective employer. In turn they go to the Home Office's website, input the code, and should get your picture, details, and entitlement to work.
That's on top of having a passport to go with it.
vinay427
In particular, this is already done using a digital ID for foreign residents (at least on most visas) in the UK, which was phased in over the past few years.
tomaytotomato
You just cherry picked two examples which are not issues in other countries with ID cards.
ID cards can prove who is an illegal immigrant or not, and with the current atmosphere. I want to know and be confident that we can check people's status efficiently and correctly who's here.
Sure there might be some small process mishaps but for the safety of the nation, it is worth it.
arethuza
"but for the safety of the nation, it is worth it"
That's a pretty chilling phrase.
the_other
I don't think you mean "for the safety of the Nation". I think you mean "for my piece of mind my business is unlikely to get caught in a sting operation".
pjc50
Everyone knows that none of the countries with mandatory ID have any illegal immigrants, right?
(sarcasm, obviously)
mytailorisrich
I did not cherry-pick anything.
Anyone who is a legal immigrant can easily prove it and must prove it to live and work in the country. So what does that make anyone who cannot prove it?
The point is that digital IDs make no difference to illegal immigration, as can also be seen in countries that do have ID cards...
boomskats
> Sure there might be some small process mishaps but for the safety of the nation, it is worth it.
Just like that database that recognises your face and links it to your pornhub preferences is worth it, for the safety of the children?
Oarch
Eric Arthur Blair, perchance?
pjc50
Has anybody bothered to specify what this will actually cover, and what it will be mandatory for? Does it imply an increase in "papers please" sweeps?
KaiserPro
So there are a number of digital IDs, but the problem is they are not really joined up or all that useful.
In principle, there is nothing really that wrong with a digital ID, as at the moment you have a bunch of UUIDs (mostly) so its not actually that hard to marry you up between departments.
In practice, what they'll do is hire accenture or some other dipshit company, spend _billions_ re-inventing a cross between a passport and oauth2, and it'll fail hard and be horribly insecure.
The better option is to tie everything to your government gateway ID (the thing that lets you renew passports, talk to the HMRC online, and a bunch of other services)
flumpcakes
Can anyone explain why this is a bad thing? All I hear about this is conspiracy theories or anti-government rhetoric but never a clear reason to why this is bad. I can't see a reason considering all of the benefits it can bring, and similar things have been rolled out across Nordic countries.
ionwake
I think its that some anonymity gives safety from the government.
IE during WW2 Holland kept such meticulous records on its citizens that it indirectly leads to the greatest numbers of imprisoned ethnic groups ( because the information was there , easily accessible by the invading forces.
I think thats a good example of how too much info results in vulnerability for citizens.
I dont have an opinion on this just sharing what I think is a good example.
zabil
I don’t think it’s bad on its own, but from my experience, the rollout can be messy and lock people out. Aadhaar in India had long registration queues, biometric issues, and banks making it mandatory. Even in the UK, the digital residency permit switch caused issues at border control.
jamiecurle
I don’t want this, but I don’t really see a future where it isn’t a thing. One group of people are right to point out the scope for abuse and control of a population, and another are correct that we already have multiple forms of digital ID in the shape of driving licenses, national insurance numbers, and passports. At this point, I view it as a thing we have to navigate as a society and get to the other side of. If I have any energy at all to fight anything related to this, I’m saving it for after the implementation because, as I said at the start of this post, I view it as inevitable. Luckily for us, though, through total coincidence, we’re now going to have massive AI data centres to help us with this brave new digital identity.
cbeach
In the UK we already have population-wide tracking of internet usage, no warrant required.
Once we have a citizen id number, it's probable the UK government will mandate that it is bound to our internet access.
The UK government has form for arresting people (about 30 per day at the moment) for online speech under vague laws criminalising messages that cause ‘annoyance’, ‘inconvenience’ or ‘anxiety’ [1]
This is widely criticised as politically-motivated (Google "two tier Kier" and you'll see what I mean). This phenomenon will only get worse once we have citizen id numbers and the cost of investigation trends toward zero.
Also the technical barriers to shutting down an individual's access to online and IRL services will be reduced.
As we saw during Covid, the UK government seized advantage of the situation to remove civil liberties, and it's likely to do so again, given the lack of apology for bad policy-making at the time.
Digital ID is bad news for the UK.
[1] https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/E-10-2025-0022...
IshKebab
> Mandatory digital ID would fundamentally change the relationship between the population and the state by requiring frequent identity checks as we navigate our daily lives.
This seems like a dubious fear. We already have plenty of ad-hoc digital IDs (see physicsguy's comment) and none of these fears have come to pass.
sega_sai
It's BS. Having a single ID instead of having to show a gas bill to prove your address is the right approach. Most European countries have a single ID card, and that's perfectly fine. In fact anyone who drives in the UK already have an ID card -- driving license. Now it's just a question of one card everyone would have and you could use to ID yourself when using banks or government services.
maleldil
This always felt weird to me in the UK. As a foreigner, I have to carry my passport anyway, but how do citizens who don't have driving licences identify themselves in day-to-day life? Say they get carded at a pub?
somelamer567
My wife who is from a large mainland European country, has an ID card. Everyone has one and they're mandatory. It makes it trivial to prove your bona fides and is good for air travel within the Schengen area. Her ID even has a chip which can be used to create digital signatures for situations where rock-solid proof of identity is required.
Amazingly, they've always had ID cards and the world hasn't ended. These countries are in some ways freer and more democratic than the UK.
'Civil libertarianism' has become a self-licking ice cream cone, and their advocacy is not only shrill and counterproductive, but also enables common criminals and bad geopolitical actors, engaging in aggressive hybrid war against free countries.
One of the few ways we are going to be able to fight off the Russian and Chinese hybrid war aggression that is assailing the West online is to hold online commenters accountable by binding their online identities to real-world strong IDs.
The libertarians may not like it, but this is the direction the world is going. Strong ID is a common sense, tried-and-true approach to protecting ourselves against criminals and foreign aggressors. And we'll eventually get digital strong ID, unless the boot-leather connoisseurs amongst us win this argument.
OTOH - partly playing devil's advocate here - I'm dealing with several bank and inheritance-related issues in the UK from my home in Sweden now, and needing to do pretty much ANYTHING with an authority in the UK feels like stepping back into the 17th century.
There's a constant requirement for paperwork to prove who I am - always in the form of items that are 100% digital nowadays in the Nordic countries (like a "utility bill" or a "credit card statement" - on paper, posted by snail-mail to my home address!)
These then need to be 'notarized' by a legal person - with seals and embossed stamps before they can be used to identify me. It's medieval.