{"id":21567,"date":"2026-01-14T14:37:30","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T13:37:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/14\/home-secretary-says-she-will-legislate-to-regain-power-to-sack-chief-constables-uk-politics-live\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T14:37:30","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T13:37:30","slug":"home-secretary-says-she-will-legislate-to-regain-power-to-sack-chief-constables-uk-politics-live","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/14\/home-secretary-says-she-will-legislate-to-regain-power-to-sack-chief-constables-uk-politics-live\/","title":{"rendered":"Home secretary says she will legislate to regain power to sack chief constables \u2013 UK politics live"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shabana Mahmood tells MPs she has lost confidence in West Midlands police chief Craig Guildford over the ban on Maccabi Tel Aviv fans <\/p>\n

Here are extracts from three interesting comment articles about the digital ID U-turn.<\/p>\n

Ailbhe Rea<\/strong> in the New Statesman<\/a> in the New Statesmans says there were high hopes for the policy when it was first announced.<\/p>\n

I remember a leisurely lunch over the summer when a supporter of digital IDs told me how they thought Keir Starmer would reset his premiership. Alongside a reorganisation of his team in Number 10, and maybe a junior ministerial reshuffle, they predicted he would announce in his speech at party conference that his government would be embracing digital IDs. \u201cIt will allow him to show he\u2019s willing to do whatever it takes to tackle illegal immigration,\u201d was their rationale.<\/p>\n

Sure enough, Starmer announced \u201cphase two\u201d of his government, reshuffled his top team and, on the Friday before Labour party conference, he duly announced his government would make digital IDs mandatory for workers. \u201cWe need to know who is in our country,\u201d he said, arguing that the IDs would prevent migrants who \u201ccome here, slip into the shadow economy and remain here illegally\u201d.<\/p>\n

In policy terms, I don\u2019t think you particularly gain anything by making the government\u2019s planned new digital ID compulsory.<\/p>\n

One example of that: Kemi Badenoch has both criticised the government\u2019s plans to introduce compulsory ID, while at the same time committing to creating a \u201cBritish ICE\u201d that would go around deporting large numbers of people living in the UK. In a country with that kind of target and approach, people would be forced to carry their IDs around with them in any case! The Online Safety Act, passed into law by the last Conservative government with cross-party support and implemented by Labour, presupposes some form of ID to work properly.<\/p>\n

Here is the political challenge for Downing Street: the climbdowns, dilutions, U- turns, about turns, call them what you will, are mounting up.<\/p>\n

In just the last couple of weeks, there has been the issue of business rates on pubs in England and inheritance tax on farmers.<\/p>\n

We welcome Starmer\u2019s reported U-turn on making intrusive, expensive and unnecessary digital IDs mandatory. This is a huge success for Big Brother Watch and the millions of Brits who signed petitions to make this happen.<\/p>\n

The case for the government now dropping digital IDs entirely is overwhelming. Taxpayers should not be footing a \u00a31.8bn bill for a digital ID scheme that is frankly pointless.<\/p>\n

Continue reading…<\/a>
\nShabana Mahmood tells MPs she has lost confidence in West Midlands police chief Craig Guildford over the ban on Maccabi Tel Aviv fans
\nHere are extracts from three interesting comment articles about the digital ID U-turn.
\nAilbhe Rea in the New Statesman in the New Statesmans says there were high hopes for the policy when it was first announced.
\nI remember a leisurely lunch over the summer when a supporter of digital IDs told me how they thought Keir Starmer would reset his premiership. Alongside a reorganisation of his team in Number 10, and maybe a junior ministerial reshuffle, they predicted he would announce in his speech at party conference that his government would be embracing digital IDs. \u201cIt will allow him to show he\u2019s willing to do whatever it takes to tackle illegal immigration,\u201d was their rationale.
\nSure enough, Starmer announced \u201cphase two\u201d of his government, reshuffled his top team and, on the Friday before Labour party conference, he duly announced his government would make digital IDs mandatory for workers. \u201cWe need to know who is in our country,\u201d he said, arguing that the IDs would prevent migrants who \u201ccome here, slip into the shadow economy and remain here illegally\u201d.
\nIn policy terms, I don\u2019t think you particularly gain anything by making the government\u2019s planned new digital ID compulsory.
\nOne example of that: Kemi Badenoch has both criticised the government\u2019s plans to introduce compulsory ID, while at the same time committing to creating a \u201cBritish ICE\u201d that would go around deporting large numbers of people living in the UK. In a country with that kind of target and approach, people would be forced to carry their IDs around with them in any case! The Online Safety Act, passed into law by the last Conservative government with cross-party support and implemented by Labour, presupposes some form of ID to work properly.
\nHere is the political challenge for Downing Street: the climbdowns, dilutions, U- turns, about turns, call them what you will, are mounting up.
\nIn just the last couple of weeks, there has been the issue of business rates on pubs in England and inheritance tax on farmers.
\nWe welcome Starmer\u2019s reported U-turn on making intrusive, expensive and unnecessary digital IDs mandatory. This is a huge success for Big Brother Watch and the millions of Brits who signed petitions to make this happen.
\nThe case for the government now dropping digital IDs entirely is overwhelming. Taxpayers should not be footing a \u00a31.8bn bill for a digital ID scheme that is frankly pointless. Continue reading…Technology | The Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shabana Mahmood tells MPs she has lost confidence in West Midlands police chief Craig Guildford over the ban on Maccabi Tel Aviv fans Here are extracts from three interesting comment articles about the digital ID U-turn. Ailbhe Rea in the New Statesman in the New Statesmans says there were high hopes for the policy when …<\/p>\n

Home secretary says she will legislate to regain power to sack chief constables \u2013 UK politics live<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":21568,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21567"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21567\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}