UK digital ID – why the government’s knee-jerk policy is damaging private sector innovation

The UK government wants to be pro-growth and pro-innovation, and to capitalize on the potential of new technologies. Yet Britain’s plans for a national digital identity scheme – announced in September – seem to have had a damaging effect: angering the private sector, as well as alarming the public and civil liberties campaigners. At least, that was the strong impression from speakers at a policy conference last week.

So, is it a political own goal? Or a bold policy vision?

As my previous report explained, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s favourite think tank, the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (the TBI) – founded by the UK’s former three-times Prime Minister – claims that the private sector will be able to innovate “on top of” a new national, government-run ID scheme that the TBI believes should be decentralized and federated.

However, the way in which that policy was announced by No ...