Starmer faces opposition to plan for digital ID

Prime Minister Keir Starmer is expected to set out more details later on his plan to introduce a form of digital ID.

The prime minister said the proposal would make the UK’s borders more secure and make it more difficult for people to work illegally.

But First Minister John Swinney said he opposed the plan, saying people “should be able to go about their daily lives without such infringements”.

The SNP leader also took issue with a suggestion the digital ID would be known as ‘BritCard’.

Writing on X (formerly Twitter), he said: “By calling it BritCard, the Prime Minister seems to be attempting to force every Scot to declare ourselves British. I am a Scot.”

Michelle O’Neill, the first minister of Northern Ireland, said the idea was “ludicrous and ill-thought out”.

“This proposal is an attack on the Good Friday Agreement and on the rights of Irish citizens in the North of Ireland,” she said.

Writing in the Daily Telegraph, the prime minister said: “We must be absolutely clear that tackling every aspect of the problem of illegal immigration is essential.”

The government will make a “new, free-of-charge, digital ID that will be mandatory for the right to work by the end of this Parliament”, he said.

More to follow.