Liberty applauds former Home Secretary’s denunciation of ID cards scheme

(London - 29 April 2009) – Liberty today welcomed former Home Secretary David Blunkett’s dismissal of the identity cards scheme. David Blunkett first put forward the idea of compulsory ID cards when he was Home Secretary in 2001 but has now withdrawn his support for the unpopular plan.

Shami Chakrabarti, Director of Liberty, said:

“Better late than never, the current Home Secretary should learn from her predecessor’s humility and dump the financial, race equality and privacy disaster that is this scheme.

David Blunkett was once the Godfather of ID cards – in the light of his good sense conversion, lets all hope that this grand folly finally sleeps with the fishes.”

The £5.6 billion compulsory ID card scheme has been unsuccessfully touted by the Government as a solution to identity theft, benefit fraud, crime, and terrorism.