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UK passport holders will also need to have ID card

Millions of British citizens will be required to hold an identity card and see their biometric details placed on a central database after the government on Monday night fended off a backbench rebellion designed to derail the plan. Anyone applying for passports or immigration documents will in two years time be required to apply for an ID card.

Government whips had been anxious that they would suffer a new House of Commons defeat, adding to sense of a government losing control, only a fortnight after the surprise reverse on religious hatred bill. But members of parliament (MPs) voted by 310 votes to 279, a majority of 31, to reject the House of Lords' demand that ID cards could not be brought in covertly by making them conditional on application for a passport.

Twenty Labour backbenchers rebelled, about the same number as the first time MPs voted on the issue last October.

The result was greeted with dismay by civil liberties groups who accused the government of bludgeoning their backbenchers.

The victory was a relief for British Prime Minister Tony Blair ahead of a week in which he faces a further close vote on outlawing the glorification of terrorism and the possibly chaotic sight of ministers voting different ways on a smoking ban.

The prime minister gave the Labour party a free vote on smoking after he had been unable to achieve an agreed Cabinet line on the issue. Ministers privately admit the whip's operation is breaking down.
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