Burnham scraps Starmer’s digital ID plan, shifts focus to living costs

Andy Burnham was due to take office on Monday and scrap Sir Keir Starmer’s flagship digital ID programme, redirecting money earmarked for the scheme toward cost-of-living measures. Burnham’s team called the move a “reset of priorities” and said the new government would “put its focus where people need it right now”.

The plan would have created a government-issued digital ID for all British adults and was expected to be introduced by 2029 under Starmer. The scheme was valued at £2bn, making its cancellation one of Burnham’s first major policy reversals and a clear break from his predecessor’s agenda.

Burnham had already signalled that he was not ready to back compulsory digital ID, answering “not now” when Starmer made the case for it. A key adviser, Miatta Fahnbulleh, said Burnham would be focused on “dealing with the cost of living in the short term”, tying the decision directly to household pressure rather than to the technology itself. Burnham’s team also cast the policy shift as a move away from digital ID and toward “the daily priorities facing people across the country”.

The change lands in the middle of a long-running Westminster argument. The Institute for Government says ID cards have been debated in Parliament for decades, and more than 40 Labour MPs have urged ministers to introduce digital ID to help control migration and improve public services. That split leaves Burnham choosing between a digital system promoted as a tool for administration and migration control, and an immediate push to ease living costs.

For Starmer, the abandoned plan had been one of the most visible bets on state reform. For Burnham, dropping it at the start of his premiership signals that the first tests of power will be judged less by digital infrastructure than by how quickly an incoming government can deliver relief to households under pressure.