ALAN JOHNSON, the home secretary, has launched an urgent review of the £6 billion identity card (ID) scheme, paving the way for a possible U-turn on one of Labour’s flagship policies.

Johnson, who was promoted in Gordon Brown’s latest cabinet reshuffle, is understood to be “sympathetic” to critics who claim identity cards will undermine civil liberties.

The home secretary told officials that he wanted a “first principles” rethink of the plan, which was launched by Tony Blair following the 9/11 attacks in 2001 and has since been championed by Brown as a way of fighting terrorism.

“Alan is more sympathetic to the civil liberties arguments than previous home secretaries,” said an insider.

“He is genuinely open minded. He wants to see all the evidence and then he will make his decision before the end of the summer.”

This comes as another key policy, the part-privatisation of Royal Mail, is on the verge of being abandoned amid a revolt by Labour backbenchers.

Dumping the identity card programme would make Johnson popular among party backbenchers and could boost his chances of becoming the next leader.

Ministers have shelved plans to push a series of regulations through the Commons that would allow the government to move forward with the next phase of the identy card scheme. The statutory instruments were due to be debated on Wednesday but the debate has been postponed until next month.

The introduction of bio-metric passports, containing fingerprint data and iris scans, will continue even if the £35 cards and the identity database are scrapped.

The Conservatives believe about £2 billion could be saved by scrapping the ID scheme.

A spokesman for No 10 said: “As you would expect, the new home secretary has asked for full and detailed briefing across a range of key issues including the principles and the progress of the identity cards.”

Johnson said in a statement last night that ID cards remained a “manifesto commitment”. He added: “We remain on course to bring in a policy that we believe has widespread public support.”

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