Daily Archives: April 21, 2010


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The Register reports: Speaking during a crime debate on BBC Daily Politics programme on 20 April 2010, Alan Johnson said scrapping the identity card scheme at this stage would be counterproductive and a “waste”. “The money all comes back because we charge for ID cards. If we stop now you’ve wasted all the capital investment and you get no money back because we will charge for the ID card,” said Johnson. He was referring to Conservative and Liberal Democrat proposals to scrap identity cards if elected. The cards are part of the National Identity Service, which will cost an estimated £5.3bn over a decade. Shadow home secretary Chris Grayling and Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesperson Chris Huhne also participated in the debate. Johnson accused them of making false claims about there being a “big pot of money” waiting if the scheme were to be dropped. Huhne labelled Johnson’s claims “absolute […]

Johnson: ID cards will pay for themselves