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Starmer defends digital ID work check plans
Western Mail
|January 15, 2026
SIR Keir Starmer has insisted there “will be checks” on the right to work in the UK, and “they will be digital and they will be mandatory’, as he faced fire in the Commons over a U-turn on the UK Government's flagship digital ID plans.
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The UK Government appears poised to water down plans for a new mandatory digital identification system for right-to-work checks, aimed at cracking down on illegal working by migrants.
The plan, announced last year, was to introduce digital IDs stored on mobile phones that would only be available to UK citizens and legal residents, and be required as proof of the right to work.
Ministers had also suggested digital ID could be used to provide access to UK Government services, including welfare and childcare.
This story is from the January 15, 2026 edition of Western Mail.
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