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Expectations that Gordon Brown would personalise the case for national identity cards to make them more palatable to the British public have been shelved. Tabloid newspapers report the prime minister plans to abandon the controversial scheme entirely over fears it would be challenged in the UK and European courts. But unnamed sources close to the PM said The Sunday Mirror’s claim he wants to axe the biometric scheme was “garbage,” The Guardian reported yesterday. The left-leaning paper did however claim Mr Brown has fresh concerns over the £5.3bn programme: at their core, is the IT proposed to implement and maintain it. He has reportedly demanded a review of the technology, in addition to the Gateway reviews of the cost and progress of the scheme which have never been publicised. Yet the current price of biometric identifiers, now compulsory for asylum-seekers, implies the scheme may become the state’s next IT fiasco – what Mr Brown fears. Figures obtained by the Liberal Democrats show £69m of taxpayers’ money went on 59 passport interview centres, designed to be the core network for ID registration. By the end of last year, the state said it would spend £55m on 60 offices, but it found only 21 offices by October, 39 offices by March 2007, and 59 offices by June. After questions in parliament, the party also heard that despite an initial plan of starting passport interviews in late 2006, just two sessions had begun by March 2007. The lobbyist NO2ID says such “rising costs” has turned the ID scheme “into a potato too hot to handle for a prime minister desperate to seem less authoritarian than his predecessor.” Phil Booth, national coordinator, also believes that a slip in the schedule of the scheme, which may have its IT reviewed or be scrapped outright, is politically charged. He asked: “If the technology won't work for Brits, why the government still trying to flog it as an 'immigration cure'? “Could it be they actually know that the interrogations and official bullying involved are likely to be unpopular and want to put them off until after the next general election?” Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrats’ home affairs spokesman, wants the nationwide ID scheme to be abandoned, in light of the costs exposé. “The government has made a total mess of introducing interviews for first-time passport applicants,” he told The Independent. “The project has gone over-time, over-budget and still isn’t working properly.” But since claims that Mr Brown wants to rid ID cards off the statute books, one government voice has provided a staunch defence, albeit one the PM is tipped to use less often . Security minister Lord West told the BBC’s Politics Show: “National identity cards will play an important part, a very important part in countering terrorism, there’s no doubt about that.” Nov 6, 2007 Email this article Printer friendly page Previous Page
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