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The Government has launched a ‘secret’ advert for its controversial new digital ID programme – despite some three million Brits signing a petition against the scheme.
Every working adult in Britain will require the virtual identification card under a ‘dystopian’ plan announced by Keir Starmer in September.
Thousands of protesters have already marched through the streets in opposition, with the petition proving one of the most popular in British history.
It has now emerged the Government is on the lookout for a Deputy Director to oversee the digital ID scheme’s operational policy.
A leaked advert, confirmed to the Daily Mail as legitimate by the Cabinet Office, is seeking an ‘exceptional and highly motivated leader’ to spearhead the programme.
The position, circulated internally, pays £81,000 and is a temporary 18-month contract.
The successful candidate will be tasked with ‘progressing impactful Digital ID use cases’ that ‘maximise citizen benefit’.
Working under the Policy Director, they will also ‘identify the specifications and capabilities for Digital ID’ and ‘maintain technical compliance with existing regulatory standards’.
A leaked advert, confirmed to the Daily Mail as legitimate by the Cabinet Office, is seeking an ‘exceptional and highly motivated leader’ to spearhead the programme
The position, circulated internally, pays £81,000 and is a temporary 18-month contract
The Daily Mail yesterday revealed newborns could also be allocated the digital identification – in a ‘sinister’ expansion of the policy. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer pictured on July 14, 2025
The ‘leaked’ advert was circulated internally – rather than publicly on the civil service jobs website – as a short-term secondment opportunity.
It comes as the Daily Mail last week revealed newborns could also be allocated the digital identification – in a ‘sinister’ expansion of the policy.
Critics of the programme have accused the Government of ‘secretly’ publicising the new role.
Independent MP Rupert Lowe this week said the Government was ‘refusing to say’ whether the internal Digital ID job role was ‘real or not’.
The Cabinet Office has now confirmed the advert as legitimate to the Daily Mail.
A spokesman said: ‘This is not a secret, it’s been advertised to over half a million people, and we announced the policy over three months ago.
‘It is perfectly normal in any organisation for short-term secondment opportunities to be advertised internally, they are used to avoid hiring more permanent staff to deliver new policies.’
But Reform UK Deputy Leader Richard Tice told the Daily Mail the Government was ‘sneaking through job adverts’.
Campaigners protesting outside Parliament last month ahead of a debate on Digital ID
He said: ‘The Government knows full well that the British public overwhelmingly rejects digital IDs, so they’re sneaking through job adverts for this toxic scheme in secret, dodging any real scrutiny.
‘This lavish £80,000 salary, complete with a gold-plated civil service pension, is damning evidence that the digital ID scheme – which will do little more than impinge on the freedom of law-abiding Brits – risks being yet another vast Government IT project with spiralling costs.’
One person said on X: ‘I see they ignored the majority of people who despised the plan, and they still went along with it anyway.’
Another added: ‘Temporary contract, length of employment 18 months. Planned to be all ready at top speed.’
The Government is yet to confirm the programme’s time frame.
Meanwhile, ministers have privately raised the prospect of issuing the new technology to children at birth, along with the ‘red book’ of health records given to new parents.
It would mark a major expansion of the scheme, announced by Starmer to tackle illegal immigration by making all job candidates prove they have the right to work in the UK.
The idea has already been discussed in secret meetings held recently by Cabinet Office minister Josh Simons.
Mr Simons told civil society groups that other countries issue lifelong digital identities to babies.
Reform UK Deputy Leader Richard Tice told the Daily Mail the Government was ‘sneaking through job adverts’ (file image)
Estonia, whose own scheme is seen by Labour figures as a blueprint, creates a unique number for each infant when their birth is registered. Later on, it gives them access to public services.
Mr Simons also suggested digital ID could be a way for teenagers to sign in to social media, following Australia’s ban on under-16s using addictive apps such as TikTok.
Since announcing the scheme, which is due to be introduced by the end of this Parliament in 2028-29, Sir Keir has tried to highlight the ways in which the technology could make everyday tasks easier – such as childcare or applying for a bank account – in the face of a backlash from the public and many of his MPs.
But the Government has refused to set out exactly what its plans for ID cards involve or how the scheme will be paid for. The Office for Budget Responsibility estimates it will cost £1.8billion.
Shadow Cabinet Office minister Mike Wood said on Wednesday night: ‘Labour said their plan for mandatory digital ID was about tackling illegal immigration.
‘But now we hear they are secretly considering forcing it on newborns.
‘What do babies have to do with stopping the boats?
‘This would be a deeply sinister overreach by Labour – and all without any proper national debate.
Mr Farage said the ‘Brit card’ was in reality ‘un-British’ and would become a ‘means of controlling the population, of telling us what we can do or say, or even tracking where we go and what we spend’ (file image)
‘This policy is just another distraction from the Government’s total inability to deal with the crisis in the Channel.’
A long-running poll found that support for the policy has plummeted since the Prime Minister announced mandatory Digital ID would be brought in for right-to-work checks.
In June last year 57 per cent of those asked by YouGov said they supported ‘the introduction of a system of national identity cards’, similar to figures reported in the previous five years, while only 25 per cent were against it.
However when the same question was posed of 1,700 Britons in December, two months after Sir Keir proposed his policy as a way of tackling illegal immigration, support had plummeted to 38 per cent while opposition had jumped to 47 per cent.
Of those against the idea, 31 per per cent said they were ‘strongly opposed’ – up from just 12 per cent six months earlier.
And among backers only 14 per cent said they now ‘strongly support’ a nationwide ID system, compared with 24 per cent in the summer.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage previously compared the situation to ‘our European neighbours’ like Germany and France, saying ID cards and ‘strict checks’ had ‘made no difference at all to the immigration crisis there, and nor will it here‘.
He said there were already digital IDs to ensure migrants had the right to work in the UK before referencing a ‘serious issue of democracy’.
Under the plans, all workers would store a digital ID on their smartphones which they could be asked to provide.
It would be the authoritative proof of identity and residency status in the UK, and would include name, date of birth, and a photo as well as information on nationality and residency status.