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From May 2005 to May 2006, Andy Burnham was a Parliamentary Under-Secretary at the Home Office in Tony Blair’s government.

At that time, he pushed for digital IDs to be imposed on the population.  On the campaign trail, he said that it was not the right time for Starmer to introduce digital IDs.  Now, he’s saying that methods to ban under-16s need to be “urgently” put in place.

Any method used to ban under-16s from online content is the first step in imposing digital IDs.

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In May, before the by-election in Makerfield, The Register reported:

The Greater Manchester mayor told a session at the UK’s Labour party conference in Manchester last autumn that he opposed digital ID given the problems the previous Labour government he had served in had experienced with ID cards.

“I think there’s a risk of an opportunity cost situation here, where something can consume a huge amount of time and actually doesn’t come through,” he said.  “And that will be the lesson about 2005 to 2010 Parliament; it consumed a lot of air time and it didn’t actually materialise.”

ID cards did actually materialise – with 13,200 produced before the scheme was scrapped. In fact, the Home Office used Manchester as a testing ground for the scheme. Burnham helped to sell it when he was a Home Office minister in 2005-6, telling the BBC that compulsory national ID cards would be “a major breakthrough” in tackling identity fraud.

… former MP Josh Simons stood down to provide Burnham with the chance of returning to Parliament and then challenging Starmer as Labour leader and UK prime minister.

Until February, Simons was the minister responsible for Starmer’s digital ID plans. He resigned after his decision to commission a probe into journalists who had written critical articles about the think tank he ran, Labour Together. 

Digital ID is also opposed by other parties, including Reform, so dropping it would remove a point of difference and could tempt some voters back to Labour. On the other hand many Labour MPs like the policy.

Burnham backlash: UK Digital ID plans in peril if Manchester mayor succeeds Starmer, The Register, 22 May 2026

The title of the Register’s article indicates that Burnham will not introduce digital IDs.  The Telegraph’s article titled ‘Burnham rejects digital ID cards in latest split with Starmer’ gives the same impression.  However, the articles’ titles are misleading. As The Telegraph wrote, “the Mayor of Greater Manchester said he did not think it was the right time for the Prime Minister to introduce the digital IDs.”  This is not a rejection of digital IDs.

Read: Burnham: Digital ID would be ‘waste of time’, The Telegraph, 29 September 2025

Regardless of what Burnham did or didn’t say, or what impression he gave, we must recall that Burnham said this at a Labour Party conference during a time when rumours were swirling that he had his eye on becoming the Labour Party leader, and so the next Prime Minister, and was using the conference to secretly build support for his plan from attendees: 

The figure of Andy Burnham is looming large over Liverpool as Labour MPs prepare to gather in Merseyside this weekend for their annual party conference.

“Rather than dismiss speculation that he wants to replace Keir Starmer, the Mayor of Greater Manchester’s pre-conference interventions have fuelled claims that he wants to swap the northwest of England for Westminster.

Speaking on the Political Currency podcast this week, former Labour Cabinet minister Ed Balls said Burnham “is going out [of his way] to build up and provoke massive speculation.”

Andy Burnham Casts A Shadow Over Labour Party Conference, Politics Home, 26 September 2025

It’s commonplace for politicians to lie to the public. Burnham is one of those politicians who will say anything to gain support and votes, while acting out the opposite.  What Burnham says on the campaign trail to win votes and what Burnham does when he’s in office are two different things.

And then there’s the doublespeak and/or Globalese that propagandists employ.

Andy Burnham has committed to enforcing a strict social media ban for users under the age of 16, under the guise of “online safety.”  And he wants “urgency” in its delivery. “He knows this ban is a critical first step to keeping kids safe online,” a spokeswoman for Burnham told The Mirror.

Banning under-16s is not, nor has it ever been, about online safety or “keeping kids safe online.” Whatever method any government uses to ban or restrict under-16’s access to any online content is a critical first step toward a digital ID for everyone.  In short, what is commonly referred to as age verification is Globalese for digital ID.

Related: New Zealand: Any method to ban under-16s from social media will drift into digital IDs for everyone

Big Brother Watch currently has an email campaign to stop the Labour Party’s plans to introduce digital IDs.  In the video below, they explain why we should email Burnham and tell him why we do not want a society controlled by digital IDs.