Met Police chief backs ID cards
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair has backed the use of ID cards as a means to fight identity theft.
Sir Ian, who also made the case for laws to pre-empt acts of terrorism, said “we have go to go to a place where we do know who people are”.
His comments came after suspected Al Qaeda member Kamel Bourgass was convicted of conducting a poison plot in north London.
But his comments have been criticised by Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Mark Oaten; while the Conservatives have called for immediate action to secure Britain’s borders.
On Thursday, Labour’s election co-ordinator Alan Milburn revealed that the ID cards bill would be the first priority if Labour was re-elected.
And today this view found support from Britain’s most senior policeman. Sir Ian told BBC One’s Breakfast with Frost: “I wasn’t particularly keen on ID cards until recently – until I began to understand the way in which identity theft is carried out.
“There are no more printing presses in basements. The documents that are being produced are exactly identical to the real documents, they are just unauthorised.”
“And so we have to go to a place where we do know who people are. We now have the technology I think through iris recognition, to go to that and I think that would be very helpful.”
Sir Ian also called for a reconsideration of the laws surrounding acts preparatory to terrorism, saying: “The way English law has developed is it doesn’t like conspiracies, it likes actually offences.”
Liberal Democrat Mark Oaten said Sir Ian was right to call for new legislation on terrorism, but wrong to call for the introduction of ID cards.
“We believe a new criminal offence of preparing for a terrorist attack should be considered and would fill a loophole in the current law,” he said
“On ID cards we believe Sir Ian is wrong to support their introduction. As Britain’s most senior policemen, we believe he should call for more police and more resources rather than support a six billion pound project that will create pieces of plastic and not result in any more police on the streets.”
Conservative Shadow Home Secretary David Davis said: ” “If ID cards are a solution at all, then they are a solution for tomorrow not today. The Government has said that ID cards would not even come into effect for eight years.
“We have said that we will conduct a review of ID cards but the priority is to take action now to secure our borders by introducing border police, re-introducing embarkation controls, removing those living here illegally and introducing legislation to deal with acts preparatory to terrorism.”
Kamel Bourgass, who is serving a life sentence for murdering detective constable Stephen Oake in Manchester in 2003, was found guilty last week of plotting to manufacture homemade poisons and explosives with intent to cause fear and injury.
The Conservatives blamed the Government for the presence of Bourgass in the UK, criticising its “chaotic asylum policy”.
