Douglas Alexander today accused organisers of an online petition against road charging of spreading “myths” about the Government’s plans.

The Transport Secretary said the e-mail encouraging people to sign up contained “a number of fictions” and pledged to press ahead with plans to pilot the scheme.

More than 1.1 million people have joined the campaign objecting to proposals for national congestion charges as “sinister and wrong”.

They oppose installing electronic “tracking” devices in cars to follow their movements and increases in road taxes.

Mr Alexander played down the significance of the campaign, saying it was “just one contribution to the debate”.

He said he expected similar-sized petitions in favour of the scheme to come in the future. Transport officials later said they were not aware yet of any that had been organised.

No decision has been taken on a national scheme, but the Government is working with ten pilot areas to develop local schemes to see how it works in practice.

A transport department official said: "The Government's approach on road pricing has been set out many times in recent months. Doing nothing is not an option. We have been clear that we welcome all debate - but it must be based on fact and not fallacy. The first step to achieving this is to demonstrate through local pilot schemes how road pricing can tackle local congestion."

Mr Alexander told the BBC: “We’ve got a big response to this petition. I imagine there will be other petitions in the future with equally large responses, but it’s an important part of the debate that we want to see.”

Speaking on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme, he said: “If you look at the petition itself, there are a number of myths which have been perpetrated and that’s why I welcome the opportunity to set some of the facts straight.

“It’s no doubt that those people who initiated the petition had a particular point of view in mind.

“I think it’s perfectly fair that people express an opinion. Ultimately the job of Government is to try and reconcile what are often competing, even contradictory, opinions held by the public.

“We need to recognise in this country that we don’t have a choice but to deal with the growing problem of congestion.”

A further 100,000 signatures have been added to the petition over the weekend.

Paul Biggs, spokesman for the Association of British Drivers, told GMTV he was very pleased with the public response.

He said: “The only way road pricing can work is to actually price people off the roads.

“That is one reason they will sign the petition. Another reason they will sign it is that are going to be trapped and traced wherever they drive. It is Big Brother - and they don’t want that.”

The Transport Department said Mr Alexander was saying that it was time for more debate, not less, and it was a question of conveying to the people what road charging is all about and that it is not a question of doing nothing.

“Public acceptability of such schemes is one of the major milestones that has to be achieved as well as carrying out the pilot schemes.

“We have always said that we have to see the results of the pilot schemes before we make a decision on a national road charging scheme.”

Tony Blair’s official spokesman said the Government welcomed a “lively” debate on the issue.

But he added: “The debate in itself doesn’t produce a solution. The crucial point about this is that doing nothing is not an option. Congestion will get worse and worse.

“This is about setting up pilot schemes to find out the facts, learning the experience of that and then seeing how we go.”