In the UK we already have population-wide tracking of internet usage, no warrant required.

Once we have a citizen id number, it's probable the UK government will mandate that it is bound to our internet access.

The UK government has form for arresting people (about 30 per day at the moment) for online speech under vague laws criminalising messages that cause ‘annoyance’, ‘inconvenience’ or ‘anxiety’ [1]

This is widely criticised as politically-motivated (Google "two tier Kier" and you'll see what I mean). This phenomenon will only get worse once we have citizen id numbers and the cost of investigation trends toward zero.

Also the technical barriers to shutting down an individual's access to online and IRL services will be reduced.

As we saw during Covid, the UK government seized advantage of the situation to remove civil liberties, and it's likely to do so again, given the lack of apology for bad policy-making at the time.

Digital ID is bad news for the UK.

[1] https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/E-10-2025-0022...

Everyone on the establishment-friendly Left ought to bear in mind that a Reform government is nearly guaranteed in 2029 (or earlier)

https://www.politico.eu/europe-poll-of-polls/united-kingdom/...

You might feel less bullish about state tracking and control of the public when Nigel Farage is in charge of the state.