Ron DeSantis blasts UK digital ID plan after King Charles' speech in Parliament

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis mocked the U.K. Labour government’s plans to implement a national digital ID system after King Charles III highlighted the proposal during his speech outlining Parliament’s priorities this week.

During a speech before the U.K. Parliament on Wednesday, King Charles outlined the government’s legislative agenda and said ministers would “proceed with the introduction of Digital ID that will modernize how citizens interact with public services.”

In Response, DeSantis posted on X, "Glad our Founding Fathers declared independence 250 years ago. Say no to Digital ID!" 

The push to create a mandatory Digital ID for all citizens has emerged as a political priority of the ruling Labour Party. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has claimed that Digital ID is necessary to combat illegal immigration and improve access to government services.

“I know working people are worried about the level of illegal migration into this country. A secure border and controlled migration are reasonable demands, and this government is listening and delivering,” Starmer said in a September statement announcing the proposal.

According to Starmer, “Digital ID is an enormous opportunity for the U.K. It will make it tougher to work illegally in this country, making our borders more secure. And it will also offer ordinary citizens countless benefits, like being able to prove your identity to access key services swiftly — rather than hunting around for an old utility bill.”

Despite support from the monarchy and Labour government, the proposal has sparked backlash from critics concerned about surveillance and government overreach.

“Triggernometry” podcast co-host Konstantin Kisin, author of An Immigrant's Love Letter to the West, pushed back on the claim that Digital ID would help stop illegal immigration.

“We know that there’s up to a million illegal immigrants in the country, and the government knows who many, if not most, of them are. Not least because a lot of them are staying in hotels and private rentals that we’re all paying for as taxpayers. So, we know exactly who they are and yet, they’re still here. They’re not being removed, and more are coming every day,” he said. “So, the reason we have an illegal immigration problem is not that we can’t identify them. It’s that we’re not removing them.” 

Kisin suggested a more sinister motive behind the implementation of Digital ID in the UK: “We have a government that locks people up for tweets, shuts you in your home because there’s a bad flu going around and thinks half the country is ‘far right.’ I remember very well there were people, quite a lot of people, during the pandemic going, ‘Well, if you have not been vaccinated, you shouldn’t be allowed into a hospital, you shouldn’t be allowed this, you shouldn’t be allowed that.’”

He continued, “I do not want to give that power to a government that has consistently proven, and not just this government, but an entire political class that has consistently proven itself not only untrustworthy but authoritarian every time there’s been an opportunity for them to be authoritarian.”

A petition titled “Do not introduce Digital ID cards,” which warns about the prospect of “mass surveillance and digital control,” accumulated nearly 3 million signatures from the time it was submitted to Parliament in July 2025 to its closure in January of this year. The Labour government rejected the petitioners' concerns and has insisted that “It will not be a criminal offense to not hold a digital ID and police will not be able to demand to see a digital ID as part of a ‘stop and search.’” 

“We will follow data protection law and best practice in creating a system which people can rightly put their trust in,” the Labour government claimed. “People in the U.K. already know and trust digital credentials held in their phone wallets to use in their everyday lives, from paying for things to storing boarding passes.”