Digital ID: Another Westminster power grab that misses the real crisis

Steven Consterdine 

The UK Government’s obsession with a so-called “Digital ID” scheme isn’t about solving problems — it’s about control.

Far from being a modern solution, it is a dangerous distraction: a headline policy designed to look bold while doing nothing to fix the real crises tearing through our communities.

We’ve already seen how exclusionary identity policies play out. Voter ID was imposed on England in the name of “protecting democracy,” yet there has never been evidence of widespread voter fraud.

What it has achieved is the silencing of voices — pensioners turned away at polling stations, homeless people unable to register, and those without passports or driving licences suddenly told their vote is worth less. Digital ID would only take this further.

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Locked out

If you don’t own the latest smartphone, don’t have broadband, or struggle with apps and log-ins, you are immediately at risk of being locked out of services that should be a basic right.

In rural Wales, where patchy internet and digital exclusion are already major challenges, the result would be devastating. The very people who most need welfare, healthcare and housing support would be the ones pushed furthest away.

And for what? Our NHS is not collapsing because patients can’t prove who they are — it is collapsing because of chronic underfunding, political neglect, and a refusal to invest in staff. Welfare delays aren’t caused by missing ID, but by a system deliberately built to frustrate and humiliate. Fraud is not prevented by forcing ordinary people through yet more hoops, but by funding regulators and enforcement agencies properly.

For people experiencing homelessness, a Digital ID is not empowerment — it is another locked door. For those living on the margins, it is not inclusion — it is exclusion by design. And for Wales, it is yet another Westminster policy made without thought for our communities, our realities, or our needs.

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Predictable

Ministers like to dismiss this as the “unintended consequences” of reform. But Westminster cannot claim ignorance. These outcomes are not unintended, they are entirely predictable. The warnings were clear with voter ID — older people, the homeless, and the digitally excluded would be disenfranchised. And that is exactly what happened. These aren’t bugs in the system. They are the features.

This is the pattern we know too well: ill-thought-out policy, rushed through for headlines, with devastating consequences. Digital ID is not about modernisation. It is about narrowing who can take part in democracy and who can access support. It is about tightening the grip of a government more interested in surveillance and control than in fairness or justice.

Inequality

Meanwhile, the real crises go unanswered. Families in Wales are trapped in unaffordable housing. Our health service is stretched to breaking point. Inequality grows deeper with every budget. These are the problems demanding bold solutions — yet instead of addressing them, Westminster chooses shiny distractions that make life harder for the vulnerable and easier for the powerful.

Digital ID won’t end poverty. It won’t house families. It won’t recruit nurses or fund schools. What it will do is strip away rights, waste public money, and deepen exclusion.

That’s why we must act. Tell your MP today: no new ID schemes. Stop wasting time, money, and essential resources. Put those efforts where they belong — into fixing the crises that really matter: housing, health, welfare, and equality.

Steven Consterdine is a business owner and Town Councillor in Penmaenmawr.