Party leaders humiliated by ID card revolt [View All]

Party leaders humiliated by ID card revolt

By Marie Woolf and Nigel Morris
21 December 2004


The Government's flagship plans for ID cards suffered a rebellion last night as more than a quarter of the Commons failed to turn up to vote for the Bill.

Labour and Tory MPs defied their whips in droves by openly voting against the ID cards plans or making their disquiet known by not voting at all.

The huge scale of abstentions by both the Tories and Labour will be acutely embarrassing to Tony Blair and Michael Howard, who both pitched their personal authority behind the ID cards plans.

But MPs argued that the cards would breach civil liberties and would be too expensive. The proposals were described as "intensely authoritarian" in the Commons yesterday.

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Over 170 Tory and Labour MPs failed to turn up to vote in favour of the Bill, which received a second reading by 385 votes to 93, a government majority of 292. The Liberal Democrats voted against the plans.

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http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=595135