Andy Burnham will become prime minister on Monday, after a meeting with King Charles, and one of his first actions will be to scrap the government's digital ID scheme. BBC iPlayer

Burnham's office said dropping the digital identity plan would be among his first moves as prime minister. He wants to spend the money instead on what he called "people's everyday priorities". CP24

The digital ID scheme was a plan to give every British adult a government-issued identity on their phone or computer, instead of carrying physical documents. It was originally the flagship idea of the current prime minister, Sir Keir Starmer. BBC News called it "a defining idea of the parliament". Starmer announced plans for compulsory digital ID cards on 25 September 2025. BBC News; BBC News; Reuters

The scheme had already been scaled back. The government made it voluntary rather than compulsory after a watchdog called the compulsory version "a fiasco". BBC News

Burnham was elected leader of the Labour Party on 16 July 2026. He has promised to use the money from the scrapped scheme to help with the cost of living, including free buses for young people and lower energy bills. Reuters; Telegraph

Reuters said Burnham's decision shows he wants to focus on the cost of living rather than the technology plans Starmer had pursued. Reuters

Burnham is known as the "King of the North" from his time as Mayor of Greater Manchester. He has also promised to move power away from London as part of a wider plan for political change. Reuters; Reuters

On 17 July, Burnham said he had not yet decided who would be in his cabinet — the team of senior ministers who run government departments — but said it would "reflect all parts of the Labour Party". Reuters

The digital ID plan had been a major project for Starmer's government. On 24 October 2025, the Labour Party published a story on its website called "Labour is modernising Britain with digital ID". Liz Kendall, the minister for science and technology, talked about the plans at the Labour Party Conference in 2025. Peter Kyle, the business secretary, told the same conference that digital ID cards were "part of the fight against cheap labour undercutting business and unions". Labour Party; Labour Party; Labour Party

The path from big announcement to voluntary retreat and now outright cancellation is striking. Kendall and Kyle had presented digital ID as a way to modernise Britain and to enforce rules in the workplace. Burnham's decision to drop the programme on his first day signals a clear break from that approach, putting the cost of living ahead of new technology.

Burnham's plan to redirect the money towards free bus travel for young people and lower energy bills puts his focus firmly on household finances rather than identity systems. The contrast is deliberate: where Starmer's government saw digital ID as a tool for modernisation and fairness at work, Burnham sees it as something the public should not be asked to pay for while living costs stay high.

The broader context here is a change of leader within the same party that still looks like a sharp change of direction. Burnham takes office on Monday with a mandate from his leadership campaign, not from a general election. His promise to build a cabinet reflecting "all parts of the Labour Party" suggests he knows that some in the party backed the digital ID agenda, particularly those around Kendall and Kyle. How those people are treated — whether they are kept in important roles or moved aside — will be an early test of whether Burnham's talk of unity survives the reality of forming a government.

For civil servants in the government's technology departments, the order to scrap a programme that has already been reorganised once will mean undoing contracts, legal work and practical arrangements. Whether the voluntary version of the scheme has created commitments that make immediate cancellation difficult is a practical question ministers will need to answer quickly.

Burnham's promise to move power away from London adds another layer. If handing more control to local and regional bodies is to be the theme of his time as prime minister, the decision to scrap a national, centralised identity scheme fits that pattern — though it will need more detail beyond a single announcement on his first day.