ID Cards are expensive and won't work, say Mid Dorset and North Poole Liberal Democrats

4.58.50pm BST (GMT +0100) Thu 20th Oct 2005

Liberal Democrats hope to stop ID Card plans in their tracks

Mid Dorset and North Poole Liberal Democrats are backing a national campaign to stop Identity Cards in their tracks. Tony Blair has pledged to push a law through Parliament in the next few months to allow ID cards to be introduced. The Liberal Democrats are leading the campaign to stop the bill being passed. As part of their campaign they have launched a national petition calling for the plans to be scrapped.

'The ID cards will cost billions of pounds and will be a huge waste of money,' says Annette Brooke, Member of Parliament for Mid Dorset and North Poole.

'With the largest group of Lib Dem MPs for eighty years, we are leading the opposition to ID cards in Parliament. Now we want the public to back the campaign so that we can show Tony Blair what people really think of his plans to impose ID cards in Britain.'

'ID cards won't stop terrorists but they will cost the taxpayer billions to introduce - and then the Government will force people to pay to hold one.' The Home Secretary acknowledged on July 8th 2005 that ID cards would not have stopped the July 7th 2005 bombings in London. In addition, the terrorists responsible for the March 11th 2004 attacks in Madrid and those responsible for the September 11th 2001 attacks in New York all carried Identity Cards.

A website has been launched at www.libdems.org.uk/noidcards to provide further information on the campaign, including online access to the national petition to put a stop to ID cards.