Charles Clarke, the new Home Secretary, today rejected calls to reconsider plans for ID cards.

Labour backbenchers have suggested yesterday’s dramatic departure of David Blunkett should trigger a rethink and the Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy urged Mr Clarke to "pause" before pressing ahead with the cards.

The former Education Secretary told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: "I certainly shall not pause. I will go ahead with the legislation."

Mr Clarke, who will lead a Commons debate on the issue on Monday, added: "Identity cards are a means of trying to create a more secure society."

The Home Secretary did hold out hope to critics that some of their concerns would be taken on board. "I have always been a supporter of identity cards and I supported David in Cabinet discussions about that earlier this year," he said. "But the question of how you put it into effect and what you do is a matter of debate. The current legislation has already been significantly influenced, for example, by the recommendations of the select committee and we will debate it in Parliament."

Mr Blunkett’s regular broadsides against the legal profession were echoed by his successor. Mr Clarke put opposition to anti-terror measures down to "concern amongst some who have been involved particularly as lawyers".

"The predominant feeling I have felt on the Labour Party backbenches and, actually, I think in the country as a whole, is that we have to tackle these issues," he told Today. "I might wish in an idealistic world we didn’t have some of these things but I think what people want today is a world in which they feel secure."

Asked whether he adopted such measures with "relish or reluctance" he said,"I don’t think that is the question at all. Whether the measures are actually introduced or not, that is the question, and what precise measures are introduced," he said.

Mr Clarke arrived for work at his new offices in Whitehall at 8.30am today. Relaxed and smiling, he posed for photographers outside the Home Office briefly before going inside. When asked what he would be doing today he just said that he would be going to the Cabinet.

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