Grayling warns we cannot afford the ID card scheme

Chris Grayling has stressed the nation “cannot afford” Labour's ID card scheme and promised that a Conservative Government would “scrap it as quickly as we can”.

The Shadow Home Secretary said he did not think ID cards were “necessary”, especially at a time when “the public finances are in a mess”

He condemned Jacqui Smith’s decision to launch a voluntary, single city scheme in Manchester, stressing:

“Piloting the scheme in one city is nonsensical and will only serve as a tax on the people of Manchester.”

Chris explained that databases for passports and driving licenses already exist, so spending billions on another scheme “just doesn’t seem to make any sense”.

And he promised that under a Conservative Government “the ID card scheme will go. I don’t think it is the right thing to do. We don’t think the nation cannot afford it and it won’t happen."