For immediate release, Thursday 10th December 2009

Liverpool Labour rebels on ID cards – IPS banned from council premises

Last night Liverpool City Council passed a motion – with the full support of the Labour group – rejecting the government’s ID card scheme[1]. The motion, prompted by reports[2] that Liverpool may follow Manchester as a ‘beacon city’ for the roll out of the National Identity Scheme, bans the Identity and Passport Service (IPS) from using any council-controlled premises or facilities to promote the scheme. It also suggests that Gordon Brown set out to mislead last autumn’s Labour Party Conference about the scheme.

NO2ID[3] says the ‘voluntary’ pilot scheme is an ID Card Con[4]. Anyone induced to pay £30 for an ID card also has to be fingerprinted, photographed and interviewed by the IPS, and becomes subject for life to regulations issued by the Home Office under the Identity Cards Act. Their personal information may be passed to other government departments, their use of the card is tracked, and they must report any change in personal circumstances to the IPS or face penalties of up to £1,000.[5]

Phil Booth, NO2ID’s National Coordinator, said:

‘Neither the people of Liverpool nor their elected representatives have been conned. We particularly congratulate Labour councillors for taking their constituents’ sides against the Home Office’s favorite surveillance scheme, even if a Labour Home Secretary complacently lets the bureaucrats steam on, spending uncounted millions in the biggest ID theft of all.’

-ENDS-

Notes for editors:

1. The text of the motion, passed nem.con. is as follows:
   

   Council notes that the Government is pressing ahead with plans to introduce identification (ID) cards. It is doing this through pilot schemes in the North West, including the planned launch of a scheme in Liverpool in January 2010. Council notes that the existing policy of the City Council is that it is opposed to the introduction of ID cards and the associated database.

   Council further notes that: -
   1. Despite arguments by Labour ministers to the contrary, ID cards and the database will not prevent crime, terrorism or illegal immigration.
   2. The introduction of ID cards would fundamentally change the relationship between the citizen and the State,
   3. The Prime Minister’s speech to his party conference sought to give the impression that ID cards would not be introduced, at the same time his Government was clearly preparing for these pilot schemes.

   Council therefore resolves to:-
   a) Reiterate its current opposition to the ID cards scheme and any introduction of this in Liverpool.
   b) Refuse to co-operate with any plans to promote the card scheme including refusal to allow any council premises to be used for promotion events or meetings and refusal to use any of the city Council’s communications channels to provide information about the scheme unless required to do so by law.
   c) Work with organizations campaigning against the ID card scheme such as NO2ID to raise awareness among Liverpool Citizens to the dangers of the ID card and the database scheme.

2. ‘Identity Cards to get city launch’ – Liverpool Echo, 30 Nov 2009 http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/uk-world-news/2009/11/30/identity-cards-get-city-launch-100252-25284497/
3. NO2ID is the UK-wide non-partisan campaign against ID cards and the database state. See http://www.no2id.net/dbstate for a list of ‘database state’ initiatives that NO2ID is actively opposing, and http://www.no2id.net/datasharing for how it all fits together.
4. http://www.no2id.net/idcardcon/
5. See ‘Statutory instruments for the Identity Cards Act 2006′ http://www.ips.gov.uk/cps/rde/xchg/ips_live/hs.xsl/1285.htm