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Brown to push ahead with ID card scheme
Last updated at 08:52am on 29.05.07
Gordon Brown is understood to be concerned about the rising cost of identity fraud
Gordon Brown will stick with the identity cards scheme when he takes over at No10, it was claimed today.
He appears to be warming to the £5billion project but will focus on its advantages to business and individuals rather than its value in combating terrorism.
There are now signs that the Chancellor and the Treasury - both of whom were initially highly sceptical - have come to support a version of the cards.
He is understood to be concerned about the rising cost of identity fraud and believes biometric cards should go ahead if they can within budget.
Mr Brown has commissioned former HBOS chief Sir James Crosby to look at potential benefits to business and customers, and has delayed publication of the report until he becomes prime minister.
The review team has consulted London School of Economics experts, who were highly critical of the original proposal on cost and workability grounds.
Academic Simon Burns, who has talked to the Crosby review, said: "I think Gordon Brown wants to create clear blue water between himself as premier and Tony Blair on the ID programme, without scrapping it like the Tories want. The Crosby report will help him justify such a move."
Meanwhile Labour party sources say Mr Brown is considering a new "British Day to celebrate traditional national values. But he is understood to oppose a bank holiday because of the cost to the economy.
Reader views (5)
Is anybody keeping a record of the ever-changing pseudo-justifications for this madcap, impractical waste of public money?
Beyond giving politicians and bureaucrats access to citizens' personal data, that is.
- E Thomson, London, England
If this is true, it's why I will vote Tory at the next election (they have pledged to scrap ID cards). I won't even need to think about any other issues, this one is far more important. If this National ID database is built, we will all forever be hostages to future governments' good intentions, and sooner or later we'll find ourselves imprisoned in a tyranny.
Gordon, please think again. They call you a Stalinist in jest now, but this monstrous ID scheme is exactly what Stalin would have done if he'd had the technology.
- Nigel, London
Just great now criminals will need to take our fingers or eyeballs before they can do their fraud!
- W Joseph, Expat
Good old Gordon, throwing good money after bad. I've yet to see anyone come up with a plausible explanation as to how it will root out terrorists.
- Trevor Roll, London
So now the ID card scheme is not really intended to combat terrorism. It's benefit is largely going to be for business and to prevent Identity Theft.
I actually think the only use will be during the winter.
As a car window ice scraper.
- Adam, Harrow, UK
