ID card rebellion slashes majority to 25

Twenty five Labour MPs rebelled, including the former ministers Clare Short, Kate Hoey, Glenda Jackson and Mark Fisher. Earlier, Labour rebels helped halve the Government's majority as they attempted to wreck the ID Cards Bill with two key amendments during an angry day-long debate.

The Bill now passes to the House of Lords, where the project is expected to encounter strong opposition.

Twenty one Labour MPs voted against the Government to back a rebel motion attempting to prevent ministers forcing people to register for an ID card when renewing passports or driving licences, cutting the Government's majority to 32.

In a second vote on a rebel attempt to make ID cards free of charge, rebels cut Labour's majority to 33.

Edward Garnier, the shadow Home Office minister, condemned the proposals as "an obscene and absurd".

But Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary insisted: "I believe the time has come when we need the benefits and safeguards that ID cards will provide both to individuals but also the wider public interest."

Ministers say ID cards would help fight terrorism, identity theft and fraud, and provide a convenient replacement for passports and driving licences.

Neil Gerrard, a left-winger, led the charge against the Bill, moving the amendment to prevent ministers forcing people to register for an ID card.

Ministers have insisted the cards will initially be voluntary. But Mr Gerrard said the Bill created "creeping compulsion" by requiring people to put their biometric details on to a national database in order to drive or travel abroad.

He said Labour's manifesto had promised a voluntary scheme, declaring: " What we have here in fact is compulsion for all practical purposes." He added: "As this Bill stands, there is compulsion from day one in a slightly more subtle form."

Mr Garnier attacked ministers for limiting the time available for debate to six-and-a-half hours. He said: "This is not some anodyne bit of business we are debating. This is one of the most important Bills we will come to discuss. This is a Bill which utterly alters the relationship between the state and the individual. This Bill creates 60 new powers given to the Home Secretary to make secondary legislation. It's a dangerous way to legislate."

The Government's plans for ID cards were published last year but ran out of time because the general election was called. They were rapidly reintroduced and Labour's majority fell to 31 when 20 backbenchers rebelled at the second reading vote in June.

Andy Burnham, a Home Office minister, ridiculed suggestions that ID cards could infringe personal privacy. He told the Commons: "It has never been our intention to create an elaborate database that will hold detailed personal profiles."

Peter Robinson, the deputy leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, warned that the existence of the cards could even undermine the fight against terrorism. "It's very likely that terrorists who don't want to be detected could find themselves with false identity cards and just be waved through the system."

The Labour MP Mark Fisher, a former minister, protested that every use of the card would be recorded. He said: "By having this card, the bearer will be traceable, all his actions, all his activities."

Alistair Carmichael, a Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, accused the Government of "consistently seeking to oversell" the merits of the cards. "Just as one argument is knocked down, then another one is produced."