Digital ID will be the next ‘Horizon scandal’

Earlier this year, Keir Starmer announced his intention to resurrect New Labour’s Digital ID policy. This was despite there being no mention of Digital ID in the 2024 manifesto. It was also despite Starmer and the policy being widely unpopular with the public.

The government has shifted its stance on why we need Digital ID as critics have torn apart their arguments. MP David Davis, meanwhile, has suggested Digital ID isn’t just unnecessary; it’s also a risk to our security.

Questions

On 31 October, the BBC reported that the “government is facing questions over whether the system at the heart of its plans for digital ID can be trusted to keep people’s personal data secure”. The piece highlights that Digital ID would be based on two Gov.UK systems:

• One Login (live now, with 12 million sign-ups).
• Wallet (live soon, but could allow individuals to store Digital ID data on their smart phone).

Speaking on the nature of this digital setup, Tory MP David Davis said:

What will happen when this system comes into effect is that the entire population’s entire data will be open to malevolent actors – foreign nations, ransomware criminals, malevolent hackers and even their own personal or political enemies.

As a result, this will be worse than the Horizon [Post Office] scandal.

While Davis opened himself up to ridicule during the Brexit negotiations, he does have a strong track record on civil liberties and surveillance. On the topic of Digital ID, he continues to highlight the leaky nature of the UK state:

Yet another Government data leak – and this is the same Government that thinks they can keep your digital ID biometric data safe…https://t.co/WbEqtmp4Fy

— David Davis MP (@DavidDavisMP) October 31, 2025

In a letter earlier this month, Davis highlighted:

a 2022 incident, in which it was found that the One Login system was being developed on unsecured workstations by contractors without the required security clearance in Romania.

Davis also points out that One Login does not meet the government’s own requirements to be classified as a safe and trusted identity supplier.

The government has said this problem will be restored “imminently”, but this itself exposes an issue with systems that rely on Digital ID: what happens if there’s a problem which leads to permanent or temporary data losses?

While problems like the recent Amazon outages eventually reach a resolution, the systems which rely on them grind to a halt in the interim.

The government is claiming Digital ID will streamline many facets of life which already work, but the counter is it could also create new obstacles:

It’s frustrating having to rummage around in a drawer, looking for an old electricity bill just to open a new bank account.

Digital ID will make our lives easier. pic.twitter.com/RLApUdNiM6

— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) October 23, 2025

Regarding reports that testing showed One Login is open to hacks, Liberal Democrat peer lord Clement-Jones claims to have spoken:

to a whistleblower, who claims that the government has missed the 2025 deadline set out in its national cyber security strategy, external for hardening “critical” systems against cyber attacks.

This followed a simulated cyber attack in March this year when authorised hackers were able to access ‘privileged’ systems. As a result, Clement-Jones said the situation:

should give us all no confidence at all that the new compulsory digital ID, which will be based on them, will ensure that our personal data is safe and will meet the highest cybersecurity standards

Big tech

David Powell is another critic of the policy is David Powell, and he recently said that Digital ID is:

the single most important piece of infrastructure that Silicon Valley and the corporations associated with them need, we must not comply.

He added that:

The Tony Blair Institute is calling for a National Data Library, it means Blair’s previously ditched Digital ID has been resurrected in line with extreme corporate pressure from the entire AI industry, Palantir, Google, Meta, Facebook, etc, and Keir Starmer’s AI Growth Zones launched in January 2025 are a key deregulated facet.

Keir Starmer is point blank lying to the public when he says Digital ID will not track the lives of Brits, this statement is the polar opposite of what Silicon Valley wants, there is no way that Starmer is pushing Digital ID for benign reasons.

Meanwhile, a key financial backer of the Tony Blair institute has publicly said the following:

The man behind the digital ID push is Larry Ellison, owner of Oracle, CBS, CNN, and, soon, TikTok. He wants data centralization and total surveillance. “Citizens will be on their best behavior because we’re constantly watching & recording everything that’s going on.” Terrifying. https://t.co/mb05XvnOAx pic.twitter.com/cUx45ORy2F

— Michael Shellenberger (@shellenberger) September 27, 2025

No Digital ID

The case for Digital ID is weak and constantly shifting; the case against it, meanwhile, is becoming stronger every day.

If there’s a silver lining to all this, it’s that when the public forces Labour into another retreat, people will forever link the policy with Tony Blair and Keir Starmer — two of the most hated PMs this country has ever produced.

Featured image via the Canary