Blair faces rebellion over ID card 'disaster'

London Times | June 28 2005

A senior Labour insider warned the Government today that ID cards had the "disaster potential" of Margaret Thatcher's poll tax and the Millennium Dome combined, as Tony Blair faced the first test of his slimmed-down Commons majority.

The Prime Minister faces a backbench revolt over the scheme with 21 Labour MPs expected to back a rebel amendment. That would not spell defeat for Tony Blair despite a cut in Commons seats from 167 in the last Parliament to 66.

Mr Blair was dealt a double blow on the eve of the vote over the cost and extent of the plan. The Information Commissioner gave warning that introducing the biometric cards could turn the UK into a "surveillance society" and academics at the London School of Economics claimed that the new cards could cost between £170 to £300 each.

Opponents predict public and parliamentary opposition to the cards to grow, with the Lords expected to be a stumbling block. Bob Marshall-Andrews, a perennial Labour rebel, predicted that many fellow Labour MPs would give Mr Blair the benefit of the doubt when they voted tonight, but added: "This is very early days."

The PM insisted that the scheme was "an idea whose time has come" at his monthly televised press conference yesterday. He rejected the independent LSE study, saying: "Some of these figures bandied around are absolutely absurd. No government is going to start introducing something that is going to cost hundreds of pounds to people. That would be ridiculous."

The Home Office later attacked the work as "based on inaccurate assumptions designed to artificially inflate the cost". Mr Blair pledged to drop the controversial scheme if costs began to spiral out of control, but refused to put a cap on the possible cost, estimated by the Government at £93.

He said that ID cards would cost only around £30 on top of the new biometric passports which UK citizens will need to continue to enter the US without a costly visa.

Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary, repeated government assurances today that ID cards were expected to cost no more than £20-£30 for each holder on top of the cost of new biometric passports - far less than the figure in the LSE report which he condemned as a "technically incompetent piece of work".

Mr Clarke also dismissed objections that the card would infringe civil liberties. He said: “They will allow people to identify themselves and ensure that the data that is held about them is data held about them and not someone else. In that sense, they are a means of attacking the ... Big Brother society."

Mr Blair also told reporters yesterday that he was confident that the public backed the scheme in principle. However, opponents point to Australia where a similar scheme was ditched after widespread public support turned into opposition amid concern over costs and practicalities.

Ann Black, a member of Labour's National Executive Committee, said today that the cards were based on "bad science" and said the Government was making a big mistake by pushing ahead without proper trials.

Ms Black, who represents constituency Labour parties on the NEC, told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: "I have a number of objections, including civil liberties, but above all I think it is a mistake to try to base policy on bad science."

She added: "In the Government’s own pilot studies, one out of five people were not identified from their fingerprints - that’s over 10 million people. Four million people wouldn’t be identified if you relied on iris recognition. The foundation for the scheme simply isn’t there in scientific terms alone, even before you go on to the civil liberties and costs.