Sir Keir Starmer is expected to announce plans for a compulsory UK-wide digital ID scheme in a speech on Friday.

The prime minister believes it would help crack down on illegal working and modernise the state, according to senior figures in government.

The practicalities of the scheme will be subject to a consultation, which will also look at how to make it work for those without a smartphone or passport.

The previous Labour government’s attempt to introduce ID cards was ultimately blocked by the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition.

But earlier this month, Sir Keir said in an interview he thought the debate had “moved on” since then.

“We all carry a lot more digital ID now than we did 20 years ago, and I think that psychologically, it plays a different part,” he added.

Reports have suggested the government plans to use a new scheme to check people’s right to live and work in the UK, with people’s individual ID checked against a central database.

These checks are currently based on physical documents, although routes to complete the checks online for some people have existed since 2022.

Plans for a digital ID scheme did not feature in Labour’s election manifesto last year, and the government has previously rejected a proposal for digital ID suggested by former Labour Prime Minister Sir Tony Blair.

But in recent weeks ministers have spoken with increasing enthusiasm about the idea, as they have come under increasing pressure to tackle illegal migration.

Cabinet Office minister Pat McFadden has also talked about the scheme’s potential to improve access to government services.

He recently visited Estonia, where digital identity can be used to access services such as medical records, voting and banking.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said introducing mandatory ID would be “very serious step that requires a proper national debate”.

She criticised the government’s announcement as a “desperate gimmick” to distract attention from the “leadership manoeuverings” of Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham ahead of Labour’s annual conference next week.

She has previously said that digital ID was “not really going to solve the problem” of illegal working in the UK.

Reform UK has denounced the plan as a “cynical ploy to fool voters that something is being done about illegal immigration”.

“It’s laughable that those already breaking immigration law will suddenly comply, or that digital IDs will have any impact on illegal work,” the party added.

“All it will do is impinge further on the freedoms of law-abiding Brits.”

The Liberal Democrats, who played a central role in blocking the previous Labour government’s ID cards, have said they “cannot support” a mandatory scheme.

“People shouldn’t be turned into criminals just because they can’t have a digital ID, or choose not to,” added technology spokesperson Victoria Collins.

Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who is set to launch a new left-wing party in the coming weeks, said he was opposed to a compulsory scheme, branding it an “affront to our civil liberties”.

Employers already have to check that prospective candidates have the right to work in the UK.

Since 2022, they have been able to carry out checks on passport-holding British and Irish citizens by using digital verification services that have been certified by the government.

A Home Office online scheme also exists to verify the status of some non-British or Irish citizens, whose immigration status is held electronically.

The government has also been phasing out physical permits for foreign residents with online-only eVisas.

It is understood officials have been looking at whether requiring a digital ID could provide a more consistent approach to verifying identity.

They are also thought to be exploring whether the scheme could reduce the use of fake documents, and make it easier to target enforcement activity.

Open Rights Group, a civil liberties campaign, said the rollout of eVisas had been subject to data errors and systems failures.

It added that the government’s proposals risked creating a “pre-crime state where we constantly have to prove who we are as we go about our daily lives.”

In the same speech on Friday, the prime minister is expected to address tensions around immigration which saw a wave of protests take place outside asylum hotels over the summer.

Addressing other world leaders, including the prime ministers of Australia and Canada, he will set out a choice between a “politics of predatory grievance, preying on the problems of working people” and “the politics of patriotic renewal”.

He will warn of the toxicity of online debate – whose “most poisonous belief [was] on full display at the protests here in London, just a week or two ago, that there is a coming struggle, a defining struggle, a violent struggle, for the nation. For all our nations.”

Up to 150,000 people took part in a march organised by far-right activist Tommy Robinson in the capital earlier this month, where many carried union jacks and St George’s flags.

At the same time, Starmer will defend his government’s action to curb immigration, arguing that “for too many years it’s been too easy for people to come here, slip into the shadow economy and remain here illegally”.

He will say “it is not compassionate left-wing politics to rely on labour that exploits foreign workers and undercuts fair wages”.

“The simple fact is that every nation needs to have control over its borders.”

Writing in the Telegraph ahead of the speech, Starmer said that “for years left-wing parties, including my own, did shy away from people’s concerns around illegal immigration,” without singling out any previous Labour leader for criticism.

But he also rejected Reform’s “toxic approach” to the situation, writing that their “simple slogans… will not do anything to resolve the problem”.

“There is no silver bullet, but we must enforce every possible measure to deter illegal migrants from entering British waters.”