Digital ID row shows PM ‘has no backbone’ says Shadow Justice Secretary

AN apparent Cabinet split over the government’s plans for digital IDs demonstrates that the Prime Minister is weak and has “no backbone”, according to the Shadow Justice Secretary.

Nick Timothy told GB News: “What it shows is the authority of the Prime Minister is in complete tatters.

“The Cabinet has not only defied him over digital IDs, it defied him over his policy towards Iran, and he is completely weak. His colleagues know he has no backbone, and he will roll over for whatever they demand.

“Digital IDs are already dead. It was supposed to be a compulsory scheme for everybody. They’ve already admitted it will be a voluntary scheme.

“It was supposedly going to help them to clamp down on illegal immigration. I don’t know how many illegal immigrants might volunteer for an optional digital ID, but I suspect the number is not very many.”

On rising energy prices, he said: “The government is planning to increase fuel duty from September this year by five pence, which we think was the wrong thing to do anyway, but it looks utterly absurd in this context.

“I would like to see the Chancellor address the country and tell us that that change will not be going ahead. There are other issues too, where the government could be active.

“A group of Conservative MPs led by Kemi Badenoch and Claire Coutinho wrote, asking for the Competition and Markets Authority to look at price gouging in the domestic oil market, where we’ve seen prices rise, regardless of the wholesale price.

“So there are things the government should be doing, but we haven’t seen those things yet.”

He also called for the IRGC to be banned: “We think the IRGC should be proscribed. The extent of Iranian influence in our country should be properly investigated, and all these organisations that are sponsored by the Iranian regime should be closed down, and in some cases, people thrown out of the country.

“We’re about to see a march in London, the so-called Al Quds March, which is something that has been encouraged for years by the Iranian state and its sponsored organisations here, and that shouldn’t go ahead.”