£5BN CHAOS AS LABOUR RETREATS ON ID CARDS

Members of the public will be invited to pay £30 to have one of the cards, which will be launched in Greater Manchester by the end of the year.

Lib Dem home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne said: “This is another nail in the coffin for the Government’s illiberal ID cards policy, which will soon be so voluntary that only Home Office mandarins seeking promotion will have them.

"Airport workers did not want to be guinea pigs for this deeply unpopular scheme which has now been reduced to nothing more than a second-rate passport.

“These expensive and intrusive plans should be ditched now.

“The vast amount of money would be far better spent on something that will actually fight crime and terrorism – 10,000 more police on the street.”

And former Shadow Home Secretary David Davis, who quit the Tory frontbench to campaign for civil liberties, said the decision “signalled the final stages of the descent into chaos of the Government’s ID card scheme.”

He added: “Whilst it is welcome that Alan Johnson recognises that the British people will not be compelled to accept this intrusive gimmick, he should also understand that this marks the death knell of this ill-conceived scheme.”

The compulsory ID card plan had been launched under Tony Blair and championed by a string of successive Home Secretaries including David Blunkett, John Reid and Jacqui Smith.

It was proposed in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks on New York in 2001 and launched in 2003.

Ministers had argued they were vital for combating illegal immigration, terrorism and identity fraud. It was furiously opposed by civil liberty groups and the Tories and Lib Dems.