Home secretary bullish on ID card funding

Alan Johnson has made fresh claims about the benefits of ID cards

Home Secretary Alan Johnson has claimed that identity cards, which are set for a national rollout at some stage, will pay for themselves.

Johnson responded to claims during a televised political debate on the BBC that the cards were a waste of time, saying that they would prove valuable because the government charged for them.

"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.

However, Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Chris Huhn said that this was nonsense because the cards are voluntary.

"The reality is that the government has made ID cards voluntary," he said. " It needs something like 13 million people to sign up to ID cards in order to cover the costs Alan Johnson is talking about. It's on course to get about 3,000."