Government forced to again deny ID cards U-turn

ID cards - will they ever happen?

Commons leader Harriet Harman has been forced to again deny repeated claims in the House of Commons that the government is about to perform a U-turn over ID cards.

The deputy Labour leader insisted there was no change in policy but said home secretary Alan Johnson was keeping the plan under review.

Pressed further during questions on future government business, Harman said biometric cards are already being introduced for foreigners in the UK and airside airport workers, adding: "If there is any change in that, which I do not expect, he [the home secretary] will keep the House informed."

Harman was responding to a challenge from Tory business manager Alan Duncan over a delay in processing four key statutory instruments required for proceeding with ID cards, with no sign of when they will proceed.

Duncan called for a statement from Johnson "to clarify what ministers have been briefing in private - that the government are on to a loser and are getting ready to perform another U-turn".

Liberal Democrat spokesman David Heath said the Tories had changed their minds on ID cards, and so had former home secretaries, and he asked when the government would do so too.

It was revealed last week that a key IT contract for producing identity cards has been delayed until autumn 2010 - after the General Election due next year.

The Home Office is reviewing the ID cards scheme as part of what it claims is a routine briefing for new home secretary Alan Johnson, who is believed to be less enthusiastic about the programme than his predecessors.

Earlier this month, the Tories wrote to the five IT suppliers involved in the ID cards project warning them not sign any long-term contracts as the scheme would be scrapped under a Conservative government.