ID card opposition crumbles

Opposition to the government's ID card scheme was ruthlessly swept aside in the first crucial vote in the House of Commons last night, with MPs voting almost four-to-one in favour of the controversial Bill.

Backbench MPs from all parties had threatened to try and derail the government's controversial ID card plans at the first reading of the Bill in the House of Commons.

New Home Secretary Charles Clarke continued the hard line of his predecessor David Blunkett and dismissed the "Big Brother" claims of opponents of the scheme.

But the revolt failed to materialise and in the vote late last night MPs voted 385 in favour with just 93 voting against the ID card Bill. It will now progress to a second more detailed debate and vote before finally being put before the House of Lords.

The strongest opposition came from the Liberal Democrats.

The cost of the ID card scheme has been put at £415m-a-year to run, not including set-up costs currently estimated at £186m and the cost of the biometric readers that will need to be deployed nationwide to validate the ID cards.