ID Card Bill passes Second Reading depite Liberal Democrat opposition

11.00.00am GMT Wed 29th Jun 2005

ID Card Bill passes Second Reading depite Liberal Democrat opposition

The Government's majority was more than halved to 31 last night when 20 Labour MPs joined Liberal Democrats, Tories and others to vote against the ID cards bill's second reading. The Liberal Democrats have vowed to continuing opposing this bill.

Mark Oaten, Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary said "The public know that this £1 billion project will go over budget, that these pieces of plastic will not tackle terrorism and that the system will be neither compulsory nor voluntary. The database will make the Child Support Agency mess-up look like a tea party. People who look like an illegal worker or a terrorist will be stopped and asked to prove their identity under the scheme. People will have to turn up at centres miles away from their homes at which their irises and fingerprints will be scanned in an intrusive way."

Mr. Oaten further said "If someone had said in 1997 that eight years later we would have a Labour Government who had tried to abolish trial by jury, who wanted to lock people up under house arrest at the say-so of a politician, who tried to remove benefits from asylum seekers and who tried to ban freedom of speech, it would have been unbelievable. Now, in about four hours' time, the Government will add to that list by trying to introduce compulsory ID cards. The scheme is illiberal, wrong and will not work, so we will vote against it."