London – Britain’s lower chamber of Parliament voted Monday to require all citizens who want a passport to have a national identity card as well – a compromise on a measure that originally required all Britons to carry a national ID card.
Hours before the vote, the government backed down on plans to require ID cards for anyone living in the United Kingdom.
The compromise bill passed the House of Commons 310-279 and now goes to the upper chamber, the House of Lords. Lawmakers hope the bill will become law by 2008.
In pushing for the cards, Prime Minister Tony Blair’s government said they would allow people to prove their identity, prevent identity theft and offer a secure way of identifying people for national security.
Government leaders have referred to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the U.S. in calling for national ID cards. Treasury chief Gordon Brown recently said that Mohamed Atta, the leader of the attacks, used false ID while moving around the United States.
“It is a protection of people’s individual civil liberties that we do not allow easily people to multiply their identities or operate on false identities,” he said.
Blair has said ID cards bearing biometric data such as electronic fingerprints or iris scans “have an important role to play in fighting serious crime and terrorism and tackling illegal immigration.”
Civil-rights advocates say the cards infringe on personal liberty. Other critics say the plan is expensive and question its efficacy.
Lord Phillips, a member of the opposition Liberal Democrats leading the fight against the proposal in the House of Lords, said the bill was “littered with problems. … Trust problems, security problems, compulsion problems. It’s going to undermine the relationship between the state and the citizen, which is already weakened and mistrustful.”
Home Secretary Charles Clarke, whose office would be responsible for any ID cards, said that despite Monday’s compromise legislation he still felt the ID cards eventually will be required.
