Showing a birth certificate isn’t a particularly hard bar to pass if you want to fake that you’re a national to be fair. You need just that and a printed letter and there’s nothing an employer will do beyond copying that (afaik you can’t look up a birth certificate and check it’s valid)

You can sort of look up a birth certificate but the service isn't designed for that. It is here: https://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/

This is where you get certified copies should you ever need that for interfacing with foreign governments that want them (the European country I live in very much wants a copy of my birth certificate).

It's not an identity check by any means but a legitimate birth certificate ought to be findable here.

But yes birth cert + utility bill is a very, very weak binding to identity.

But it would need to align with the records associated with their NI number no?

Not if you aren’t PAYE and I’m not sure there are any identity checks if you are.

Ni number isn't associated to a photo, and selling or trading them is piss easy

Is this a real thing? It would be essentially identity fraud and having more than a couple of jobs linked on PAYE at the same time would likely raise a flag somewhere in the government

Yes - people are getting tax bills from HMRC after selling their national insurance numbers to dozens of people for them to work illegally, not realising they will be on the hook for the tax which will the affect their benefit claims (child tax credits, etc.)

But then the government should also know where to find all these unauthorised workers, I can't imagine how could anyone pull this off for more than a couple of months without getting arrested (or at the very least losing their job)

More than one job at a time is entirely legal though.

Because this is a straight up lie Starmer says to try to win at least one Farage supporter and get printed in the Torygraph.

You are correct and this won't help. The government is using deceit and dishonesty to push this proposal but I think people can see through it. That should really raise a red flag.

Just like people saw through Brexit, eh? Sorry, I say this from Trumpistan.

Easier to check during a raid? There’s no requirement to have a birth certificate or passport or other ID on your person. If they currently check national insurance numbers and names you can give someone else’s (no photo).

This is my thought exactly. Don't they already have something like SSN to identify people in Britain? I don't see how a digital ID would be any better.