A top Conservative minister has torn into Sir Keir Starmer’s plans for mandatory digital ID cards, branding the move a “smokescreen” for the string of Labour scandals.

Speaking to GB News, Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Helen Whately accused the Prime Minister of rushing out a “last minute announcement”.

Following a petition against the plans garnering over 600,000 signatures, Sir Keir is expected to confirm the plans in a speech to the nation today.

A Government spokesman has claimed that there will be “no requirement” to carry Labour’s new digital ID, but it “will be mandatory as a means of proving your Right to Work”.

Outlining the Conservative stance on the plans, Mrs Whately told GB News: “We’re against against the introduction of mandatory ID cards.

“We don’t want to have a society where people can be stopped in the street and asked to show their ID, we’re completely opposed to that.

“And the fact is, this was an announcement rushed out at the last minute from Keir Starmer to try and distract from all the problems.

“It’s just a smokescreen for the failures of him and his Government, for his failure to stop the boats, for his failure on the economy, for all the scandals from Angela Rayner, Peter Mandelson and Morgan McSweeney, and questions over his own donations to his leadership campaign, and a leadership contest from Andy Burnham.”

She added: “Keir Starmer is in so much trouble. People are so angry with him and his Government, and so he rushes out just to try and move the headlines on.”

Pressed by host Anne Diamond on Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch’s stance on ID cards, Mrs Whately made clear that she is “strongly against” the concept of “mandatory” digital identification.

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The Tory minister explained: “Kemi has put out this morning is that she is strongly against mandatory digital ID, the requirement that people should have to have a Government state ID, because we just don’t think that we should be that kind of society.

“So this is completely the wrong response from Keir Starmer to his failure to stop the boats, and actually, this is not going to be the answer to controlling immigration.”

Highlighting a key flaw in the plans, Mrs Whately told GB News: “He’s talked about this particularly being focused on work and people showing an ID in order to be into work.

“And initially, the fact is already you have to show an ID when you’re getting a job.

“Employers already are legally required to check an ID, and the problem of illegal working is when that ID isn’t checked, for instance, and people are being paid in cash.

“So this completely won’t solve the problem that Keir Starmer is trying to say it will solve.”

Admitting that the British public are open to “simpler digital ID systems”, Mrs Whately declared that Keir Starmer’s plan is “completely different” from what it should be for Britons.

The Tory minister concluded: “The public are interested in the idea of having easier ways to log in to Government services, and rather than having loads of different logins, people like the idea of something that will make it more convenient and easier for them to access, whether it’s their NHS details or doing your tax return or different things like that.

“So people are open to the idea of kind of simpler digital ID systems. And of course, at the moment lots of ideas are not digital and things should move with the times.

“But that is a completely different thing from what it actually looks like Keir Starmer is planning to introduce, which is a mandatory ID, and that’s a whole other thing which Kemi and I and the Conservative Party do not support.”