The roll out of Labour's planned digital ID cards is set to cost £1.8billion over the next three years, it has been revealed.
The Office for Budget Responsibility's (OBR) fiscal outlook, released early in what it branded a "technical error", has unveiled the cost of the controversial ID scheme for the first time.
It reads: "The implementation of digital ID cards is provisionally forecast to cost £1.8billion in total over the next three years, split across £0.5billion RDEL (resource spending) and £1.3billion CDEL (capital spending).
"The Government has announced its intention to meet the costs of this through existing DEL (departmental expenditure) budgets, however no specific savings have yet been identified."
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Rachel Reeves referred to the introduction of digital IDs during the delivery of her Budget speech in the Commons today.
The Chancellor however did not make direct reference to the cost.
She said: "The introduction of Digital ID will break the link between illegal migration and illegal working."
Tory MP, David Davis, slammed the scheme as an "egregious waste of the public's money".
Rachel Reeves delivered her Budget speech in the Commons today
| PAThe Goole and Pocklington MP wrote to X: "Labour plan to press ahead with its dystopian and dangerous mandatory digital ID plan.
"The OBR’s leaked forecasts show that will cost £1.8billion over the next three years.
"This is an egregious waste of the public's money and a figure that will likely balloon in the future."
Reform's head of policy, Zia Yusuf, accused Labour of diverting money away from "sorting out the border crisis" to fund the scheme.
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A petition set up in opposition to Labour's digital ID plan has attracted almost three million signatures
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"Wow: Labour is going to spend £1.8billion on Digital ID! And it is coming out of the Home Office budget, which is still being cut in real terms," he wrote to X.
"Labour is literally diverting money away from sorting out the border crisis to taking away British people’s liberty."
Sir Keir Starmer confirmed in September plans to roll out free digital IDs for Britons by 2029.
Labour has said the scheme will help combat illegal working while making it easier for the vast majority of people to use vital government services.
The plans have however proven controversial, with almost three million people having signed a petition to not introduce the cards.
Thousands of protesters marched through central London last month to show their opposition to the scheme.
Demonstrators chanted and waved banners along a route from Marble Arch to Whitehall.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch dismissed the plans as a "gimmick that will do nothing to stop the boats".
Thousands of people took to the streets of central London last month to oppose the plans
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Reform UK leader Nigel Farage also said he is "firmly opposed" and suggested he would rather go to prison than carry a digital ID.
Speaking on GB News in October, the Clacton MP said: "I think the whole thing is appalling.
"I will not be having Digital ID. Put me in prison; not a problem. I will not be having digital ID and I really mean it."
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