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UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer may have found the fastest way to sink his government’s plan for a national digital ID. Reports from Bloomberg and the Telegraph say Starmer’s Chief Secretary Darren Jones has asked ministers to find money in their departmental budgets that can be funneled into the digital ID program – “savings that could be diverted to finance the policy.”

Departments are to submit proposals for their sacrificial cuts by January.

A hotly contested government policy is one thing. A hotly contested government policy that the government cannot pay for without borrowing from existing services is typically destined to become deeply unpopular. Bloomberg quotes sources who say the Chancellor of the Exchequer did not agree to designate money for the digital ID scheme in the current spending round. Hence the ask for handouts.

UK citizens are currently divided on the idea of digital ID, with 38 percent in support and 32 percent against, according to an Ipses poll in August. Funding has already been a point of contention. The Office for Budget Responsibility has ballparked the roll-out of digital ID cards at around 1.8 billion pounds (2.4 billion dollars). The government will not commit to that number – but is unlikely to find a way to do it for less.

Buy now, save later with digital identity scheme

The government is taking the long view, estimating that its digital identity plan could save up to 45 billion pounds (60.5 billion dollars) from the digitization of public services. The Cabinet Office says departments are encouraged to take funding only from “non-essential” programmes with “similar objectives” to the digital ID program.

However, Starmer’s Labour government must first work through the baggage leftover from Tony Blair’s early 2000s push to introduce a national ID card, which has left a bad taste in many Britons’ mouths. There is lingering distrust and fear that the scheme, which has been sold as a way to crack down on illegal migration, would lead to mass government surveillance and state control. There is also the specter of Gov.uk Verify, the digital debacle that cost 220 million pounds, and resulted in little.

The government has named Josh Simons, a first-term Labour MP for Makerfield and vocal champion of the digital ID plan, as minister of digital reform in charge of public consultation. Simons can expect to hear plenty of feedback, particularly as more details about specific costs and cuts become clear.

The Telegraph quotes critical Liberal Democrats, who have already begun the assault on Starmer’s budgetary entreaty, calling it “disgraceful.” The move is also likely to turn at least a few Labour MPs against the scheme, joining an opposition that includes politicians, civil liberties and digital privacy groups, and the private biometric and digital ID sector in the UK.

The latter group continues to argue that the most cost effective and efficient path to digital identity for the UK is not a government wallet program, but through the firms that have already been certified to provide digital ID services under the Digital Identity and Attributes Trust Framework (DIATF). The government’s plan to strip mine existing services for financing will definitely add more fuel to the industry’s fire.