Labour has been accused of U-turning on a U-turn by insisting that people who want to work in the UK will face mandatory digital checks. 

Last month Labour ditched plans to require people to sign up to a Digital ID system to prove their right to work. But when asked by Tory chairman Kevin Hollinrake “whether the employee will be able to continue to present analogue or hard copy documentation,” Cabinet Office minister Josh Simons said: “As the Prime Minister has stated in the House of Commons, there will be checks. They will be digital and they will be mandatory. We will consult on the technical detail of how this will be implemented.”

The Conservatives warned of a “backdoor attempt to deny employment to anyone without a digital ID”.

Shadow Cabinet Office minister Mike Wood said: “The Government has now u-turned on its previous u-turn. What was sold as an optional convenience and a means tackle illegal working is now compulsory digital ID for anyone who wants a job.”

The Government has strongly denied this is a u-turn but Mr Wood said: “The Conservatives will continue to oppose compulsory digital ID and stand up for those who will be disproportionately affected by this, especially the elderly and vulnerable.”

Mr Wood said the Government “has u-turned so many times that it no longer seems to know what its own position is, or where it is heading, adding: “Such a complex IT project will invariably go over-budget and behind schedule, costing taxpayers a fortune.”

When the Cabinet Office minister was asked by Mr Wood whether the Government has considered allocating children a “digital identity number” at birth, Mr Simmons said: “All UK citizens and legal residents aged 16 and over will be able to get the national digital identity credential, and we will be consulting the public on the minimum age.”

Tory MP Jack Rankin said Labour’s position showed “they have no understanding of, or respect for, the British public, whose opposition could not be clearer”.

The Liberal Democrats’ Cabinet Office spokesperson Lisa Smart also sounded the alarm, saying; “A bag of protractors would have fewer 180 degree turns than this Government.”

She said her party has “vehemently objected to mandatory digital ID ever since Blair first gave the policy a crack over a decade ago”.

“Given this Labour Government’s difficulty in getting pretty much anything over the line, I don’t think we’ll find it hard to continue our opposition,” she added.

Guy Dampier of the Prosperity Institute said: “It is already mandatory for migrants in the UK to provide a digital ID in the form of their eVisa, to prove their right to work.”

But he added: “Despite this, many migrants are able to work illegally through shared accounts and false identities.”

Green Party leader Zack Polanski this month claimed Sir Keir Starmer’s vision for the country was a nation “where protesters are thrown in jail without a jury trial, where digital ID is mandatory, and where our most personal health data is sold off to US tech giants’.

A Cabinet Office spokesperson said: 'We will be introducing mandatory digital right to work checks. That remains our policy. Digital ID will make public services more efficient and streamlined, cutting the cost for the taxpayer and making dealing with Government as easy and secure as online banking.”