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Blair defends identity card plan Blair goes on ID card offensive
(about 1 hour later)
Tony Blair has said he will push on with the ID card scheme - saying that as with CCTV and DNA the issue was one of "modernity" not civil liberties. Prime Minister Tony Blair has said he will push on with ID cards - insisting that as with CCTV and DNA the issue is one of "modernity" not civil liberties.
An "action plan" would be published by the Home Office in December to "explore the benefits" people could get from ID cards in 10 years' time, he said.
He told his monthly news briefing all non-EU nationals will need them to work or access public services from 2008.He told his monthly news briefing all non-EU nationals will need them to work or access public services from 2008.
The cards would tackle identity fraud, illegal immigration and solve crimes, the prime minister insisted. But he also confirmed the timetable for Britons' cards has slipped to 2009.
The Conservatives, Lib Dems and other critics oppose ID cards on cost, civil liberty and effectiveness grounds. The Tories and Lib Dems oppose ID cards - which are not due to become compulsory until at least 2010 - and say they would scrap them if they got into power.
'On schedule' Scheme costs
Mr Blair insisted the project was on budget, saying biometric passports had to be introduced anyway and, they made up 70% of the cost of ID cards. Mr Blair said ID cards would become compulsory first for non-EU overseas residents who come to Britain for more than three months.
ID cards will become compulsory from 2008 for non-EU overseas residents who come to Britain for more than three months, Mr Blair said. They would help tackle illegal immigration, terrorism and identity fraud, while also protecting the vulnerable and the solving of crimes, he said.
They were not a "complete solution" to problems such as benefit fraud, illegal immigration and terrorism, he added. Mr Blair dismissed critics of the scheme's cost, insisting the project was on budget.
But the accompanying National Identity Register would "help improve protection for the vulnerable, enabling more effective and quicker checks on those seeking to work". He said biometric passports had to be introduced anyway and they made up 70% of the cost of ID cards.
Cash for honours Mr Blair, who also highlighted government IT schemes which he said showed such a large database could be made to work, said he wanted to make a major effort to sell the potential gains for people.
Identity cards are not due to be compulsory for Britons until 2010. Both the Conservatives and the Lib Dems say they would scrap them if they won the next General Election. "We need to lift our sights a little. I don't think, in the debate so far, that we have even begun to explore the benefits that we will see in, say, ten years time," he said.
Mr Blair said the issue of ID cards and other issues such as anti-social behaviour, CCTV cameras and the DNA database were often portrayed as civil liberties issues. Critics
But, he said, he believed that it was more an issue of "modernity" - the need to use new technology to tackle the new types of crime. "We are building a new part of our national infrastructure here. And like other such projects the gains to citizens will be much larger and more extensive than anyone could say at the time," he added.
He said there needed to be a wide debate on the issue, adding that he wanted to get across to people the point that ID cards would allow people to protect their own identity. ID cards and other issues, such as measures to tackle anti-social behaviour, CCTV cameras and the growing DNA database, were often portrayed as civil liberties issues, he said.
Mr Blair, who was asked many times about the death penalty to which Saddam Hussein was sentenced on Sunday, said he opposed the death penalty in general, but said it was a decision for Iraq to make. But he believed that it was more an issue of "modernity" and of "modern life" - and he backed the use of these new technologies to tackle the new types of crime.
For the Liberal Democrats, home affairs spokesman Nick Clegg said: "Tony Blair must be living in cloud-cuckoo land if he seriously believes that the creation of the world's largest identity database will be a magic cure for identity fraud.
"All the evidence from Britain and abroad shows that big government databases just become the favoured target for ever more sophisticated organised criminals."