Tories renew attack on ID cards
The Tories have mounted a renewed attack on the government’s flagship ID cards bill.
Ahead of the second reading of the identity card bill on Tuesday, Shadow Home Affairs spokesman, David Davis, branded the new identity card system as “unnecessary, unworkable and unlikely to make our streets and communities any safer”.
Both Tories and the Lib Dems are expected to vote against the scheme, with a score of Labour rebels expected to sign an amendment, which if accepted, would effectively kill of the scheme.
Mr Davis told the Mail on Sunday: “In Labour’s Britain there is a sense that we are all now guilty until proven innocent.
“As if to reinforce this point, they now want us to carry around a plastic card with our name, address and photo on it so we can prove who we are all at all times.
“This is something which I instinctively oppose. It represents a unhealthy shift in the balance of the relationship between the citizen and the state.”
John McDonnell Labour MP for Hayes and Harlington and chair of the Campaign Group, a body of MPs opposed to ID cards, said the scheme was akin to the poll tax and Dome “rolled into one”.
Labour MP Bob Marshall-Andrews, a member of the Campaign Group, will tell GMTV today of a “very heavy groundswell of opinion” against ID cards.
The Transport and General Workers Union has warned ID cards may become “a disaster for race relations”.
Other critics have attacked the Government over the anticipated cost of the scheme.
Over a ten-year period, ID cards and the new biometric passport system could cost nearly £6 billion, the Government says, with each citizen expected to pay a third of the £90 cost for the ID cards.
But independent estimates put the figure closer to £15 billion, with each person paying £220.
The Tories insist the money would be better spent on tightening immigration controls.
