Amanda Holden has waded into the ongoing row surrounding the rollout of digital IDs through a post shared on Instagram.

The Britain’s Got Talent judge, who also fronts a series of shows on the BBC, has criticised former Prime Minister Tony Blair’s endorsement of the scheme.

On social media, Ms Holden circulated a post suggesting Mr Blair stands to benefit financially thanks to his son Euan’s company’s supposed involvement in developing the scheme.

In view of her 2.6 million followers, Ms Holden reposted an update from @criticalmindb that claimed: “No wonder Tony Blair wants Digital IDs.

“His son is the owner of the company that’ll be paid £100 billion to develop and monitor them. And Tony had £375 million worth of shares in the company already.”

As it was shared on her Stories, fans were unable to share their thoughts. However, the topic of the Blair family’s involvement in digital IDs is one that’s landed Ms Holden’s employers at the BBC in hot water before.

Earlier this month, an episode of Have I Got News For You was broadcast in which similar claims were made about Mr Blair’s son.

In the episode, guest host Victoria Coren Mitchell asked the teams who is set to benefit from the introduction of the ID cards, to which she said: “I was thinking of the company Multiverse, who has been chosen to run the digital ID cards scheme.”

Team captains Paul Merton and Ian Hislop proceeded to crack jokes about the Blairs’ supposed involvement, but soon after the episode’s broadcast, a correction and apology had to be issued.

Fact-checking organisation FullFact debunked the claims, saying: “This isn’t true, according to both the government and Multiverse, which is an ‘upskilling company’, not a software developer. The government has not announced any partner for the project.”

A BBC spokesperson said at the time – and reiterated when contacted by GB News regarding Ms Holden’s social media post: “Have I Got News for You contained an inaccurate story about Euan Blair’s company, Multiverse, being chosen to develop the government’s contract to produce digital ID cards.

“Multiverse is not a software developer, and there is no evidence of any involvement in the proposed digital ID scheme. Therefore, we have taken the episode off BBC iPlayer while we edit the relevant section out. We apologise for this unintentional editorial oversight.”

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The episode has since been reinstated on iPlayer with the segment removed. Ms Coren Mitchell also used social media to issue a similar correction.

She posted on X: “Meanwhile, if you see a clip of me saying the ID card contract has gone to Tony Blair’s son: it hasn’t.

“That was something I was given to ask about last night, but turns out to be incorrect. Which is bad news for the fact checkers but good news for social mobility.”

When Multiverse replied in good faith to thank Ms Coren Mitchell and the BBC for their speedy correction, the Only Connect host replied: “What a nice, goodnatured tweet.

“I feel like an idiot for not questioning that story more when it went past. I had heard of Multiverse and their apprenticeships, and it sounded like a very good thing. UNLIKE ID CARDS.” (sic)

GB News has also contacted Ms Holden’s representatives for comment on the social media claim.

The controversy surrounding digital IDs has been rife ever since the prime minister set out his plans to make them mandatory in September.

He claimed their implementation would come after it’d been “too easy” for people to work illegally in the UK.

Speaking at the Global Progressive Action Conference in London, Mr Starmer also said it was time to “look ourselves in the mirror and recognise where we’ve allowed our parties to shy away from people’s concerns”.

“It is not compassionate left-wing politics to rely on labour that exploits foreign workers and undercuts fair wages,” he said.

“The simple fact is that every nation needs to have control over its borders. We do need to know who is in our country.”

Digital IDs have been widely condemned by Mr Starmer’s opponents, with Nigel Farage of Reform UK going as far as to call them “sinister”.

Meanwhile, research this week has suggested that millions of pensioners risk becoming “second-class citizens” once they’re rolled out.

Silver Voices, a non-profit dedicated to supporting the over-60s, accused the government of “disempowering” and preventing older people from being “full members of society” without a smartphone.

Data from Age UK shows that 4.3 million older people don’t use smartphones, with 1.6 million people in the same age category not using a mobile at all.

A spokesperson for the organisation claimed it was “outrageous” and “not acceptable” to roll out digital IDs without “saying how it will affect the whole population”.