Tories and Lib Dems criticise Starmer’s ‘spinelessness’ after U-turn on digital IDs – UK politics live

Ministers have rolled back central element of digital ID plans, possibly allowing people to use other forms of identification to prove their right to workGood morning. Keir Starmer has performed another U-turn – on compulsory digital ID. Here is Peter Walker and Pippa Crerar’s overnight story.A few days ago Noah Keate from Politico listed seven major U-turns the government has already performed. Today’s news takes that tally to eight, although, if you were being harsh, you could probably find more, because government always involves adjusting to circumstances, and so plans always change. But these a big, proper U-turns, in the usual meaning of the word as applied to politics – significant reversals on signature policy.The Prime Minister is ‘turning the corner’...straight into another u-turn.Good riddance. It was a terrible policy anyway.While we welcome the scrapping of any mandatory identification, this is yet another humiliating U-turn from the government. Keir Starmer’s spinelessness is becoming a pattern, not an exception.What was sold as a tough measure to tackle illegal working is now set to become yet another costly, ill-thought-out experiment abandoned at the first sign of pressure from Labour’s backbenches.Number 10 must be bulk ordering motion sickness tablets at this rate to cope with all their U-turns.It was clear right from the start this was a proposal doomed to failure, that would have cost obscene amounts of taxpayers money to deliver absolutely nothing.Remember Lynton Crosby’s “barnacles off the boat” strategy? At 2010 and 2015 elections the Tories successfully shed unpopular policies and perceptions that hindered their electoral appeal. Instead, they focused on core messages they believed would help win over floating voters. It worked.Unfortunately to make this strategy work you need a boat. Continue reading...