Cabinet Office Permanent Secretary Cat Little has told staff this morning that the Digital ID policy isn’t totally dead after all. Instead, it lives on within DCMS. She even apologised for the confusion given the briefings to the opposite effect. Not to mention the fact that Burnham’s spokesman said over the weekend that the “time and resource that was going to be spent on a national ID scheme will go instead to where it’s most needed, such as helping with the cost of living“. The cracks already appearing. Darren Jones is having a fantastic 24 hours post-sacking…
UPDATE: Guido hears Digital ID as a policy will die, but the infrastructure and teams around it are going to DCMS to close them down more gently. Instead of sacking them all straight away…
UPDATE II: No10 spokesman says at this afternoon’s Lobby briefing of political hacks, “Digital ID was not yet operational because the policy was in its consultation phase. It means the intention and effort can be used to tackling the abuses the of welfare and immigration systems…”
Krishnan Guru-Murthy asked John Healey: “Just finally, I mean Andy Burnham has been very clear he wants Britain back in the European Union in his lifetime. Do you?”
The Chancellor replied: “I’m older than Andy Burnham. I don’t expect to see that.”