A Jesmond councillor doubts the national digital ID scheme which was first proposed in September 2025 by ex-Prime Minister Keir Starmer and scrapped earlier this year by the present national government would have made much difference to students and young people seeking part-time work because it is “so expensive and so complicated”.

The councillor also expressed concern that the right guardrails to keep IDs safe could be put in place.

The original proposal would have required employers to use digital ID for right-to-work checks, but the government dropped that requirement in January 2026. Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s Labour government cancelled the national programme on July 21st.

Employers must still check applicants’ right to work and though no longer mandatory, government-approved digital verification services remain an available option for each check. The question is whether the original proposal would have made it easier for young people to get hired than the current process.

Jesmond Liberal Democrat councillor James Coles told JesmondLocal that he doesn’t think that an introduction of Digital IDs would “shift the dial meaningfully.”

He added: “I’m sure it might make a bit of a difference but I don’t think it would be the key consideration.” He argued that the bigger issues are the structural ones which make it “so expensive and so complicated” to hire students for part-time work.

He proposed that a better solution to solve the complexity of the hiring process of students would be to simply reduce the cost it takes to employ them.

Coles also addressed concerns over privacy and data security. He posed the question, “Are you more comfortable giving data to Google than the government? I’m skeptical of both but I don’t think it’s unnatural in the sense that we’re doing it anyway.” When asked whether digital ID could be useful if adequate safeguards were in place, Coles replied, “With the right guardrails, fine. But I don’t trust that the guardrails are there.”

Sam Clough, who works part-time in Jesmond bar Hüs, recounted his hiring process as being fairly straightforward. He said that “maybe a digital ID would make things easier,” but that this is not worth a compromise of privacy. He added: “I would definitely be concerned about personal data security as there is no proof of the government being secure enough.”

The Home Office did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Although former prime minister Keir Starmer’s proposal for digital ID has now been discarded, Labour MP, Ian Murray said last month that “The Government is committed to making it simpler and more secure for people across the country to complete necessary tasks and everyday transactions digitally, where they choose to do so.”