Anger at ID card rules

Published in Gloucester Citizen Newspaper on Tue 7th Oct 2008

A CHILEAN woman who has lived in Gloucester for around a decade will be forced to have a biometric ID card, even though she has been checked out by the authorities several times before.

Even though Polly Hilton has a British driving licence, a passport, the right visa and has been checked by the Criminal Records Bureau, she will need a new ID card.

Her husband Jeremy, Liberal Democrat prospective parliamentary candidate for Gloucester, condemned the Government's announcement that foreign nationals and students will be the first groups to have to carry ID cards.

He said: "This costly, unnecessary scheme is doomed to failure.

"It takes away people's privacy, which has already been eroded under the New Labour surveillance state.

"Labour has shown time and again that they cannot keep people's data safe, so why should we trust them now?"

A Home Office spokeswoman said it does not comment on individual cases and the new credit-card sized document will show the holder's photograph, name, date of birth, nationality and immigration status.

She said compulsory identity cards for foreign nationals will kick start the National Identity Scheme, with the first applicants having to apply for cards from 25 November.

Within three years all foreign nationals applying for leave to enter or remain in the UK will be required to have a card.