Burnham backlash: UK Digital ID plans in peril if Manchester mayor succeeds Starmer

Digital ID plans could be put in doubt if Andy Burnham replaces Keir Starmer as UK prime minister. Burnham previously opposed digital ID, citing problems experienced by the Labour government he served in with ID cards. He warned that such projects could consume large amounts of time without delivering results, referencing the 2005 to 2010 period. ID cards were produced, with 13,200 made before the scheme was scrapped, and Manchester had been used as a testing ground. Burnham had helped promote the ID card approach when he was a Home Office minister. Labour selected Burnham to contest the Makerfield seat in a June by-election, requiring him to win in a Brexit-leaning area where Reform performed strongly in local elections.

"The government's plans to introduce digital ID could be put in doubt if Andy Burnham, who spoke out against the scheme last September, replaces Keir Starmer as the UK prime minister. The Greater Manchester mayor told a session at the UK's Labour party conference in Manchester last autumn that he opposed digital ID given the problems the previous Labour government he had served in had experienced with ID cards."

""I think there's a risk of an opportunity cost situation here, where something can consume a huge amount of time and actually doesn't come through," he said. "And that will be the lesson about 2005 to 2010 Parliament; it consumed a lot of air time and it didn't actually materialize." ID cards did actually materialize - with 13,200 produced before the scheme was scrapped."

"Burnham helped to sell it when he was a Home Office minister in 2005-6, telling the BBC that compulsory national ID cards would be "a major breakthrough" in tackling identity fraud. On 19 May 2026 Burnham was selected by Labour to fight the Parliamentary seat of Makerfield in a by-election in June. It would be a surprise if the party had not chosen him, given the former MP Josh Simons stood down to provide Burnham with the chance of returning to Parliament and then challenging Starmer as Labour leader and UK prime minister."

"To return to Westminster, Burnham will have to win a by-election in a constituency where Nigel Farage's Reform party won more than half of the votes in local council elections earlier this month. The area also voted 65 percent in favor of leavin"

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