TONY BLAIR tried to control a backbench rebellion over identity cards yesterday by acknowledging that concern over their cost was the main obstacle to them being accepted by the public.

He insisted at his monthly press conference that they would cost no more than £30 extra for most people and that a scheme could not be introduced if people regarded the price as unreasonable.

But, although he voiced confidence that Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary, would push through his ID cards Bill, whose second reading will be debated in the Commons today, Mr Blair hinted strongly that he would not regard it as a resigning matter if it failed.

Mr Clarke faced a new setback last night when the official data protection watchdog called his plans excessive and disproportionate. Richard Thomas, the Information Commissioner, said that the cards — backed by a comprehensive national identity register — could become part of a new “surveillance society”.

In a position paper issued for the debate, he urged MPs to consider the impact of the Government recording so many personal details of its citizens’ lives. Mr Thomas said he believed that once a person’s identity had been established and a card issued, there was “little justification” for retaining all their details, including a record of their “biometric” features, in the register.

Mr Blair dismissed the “wilder” estimates of the cost, but clearly left open the option of capping it. “We are not even at the stage where we have to make a decision about that,” he said. “No government is going to be introducing ID cards if the cost to the public is seen by them as unreasonable.”

The Prime Minister said that developed countries including EU states, the US and Canada were bringing in biometric passports — which contain details of the holders’ identity such as fingerprints, iris patterns and facial scans — within the next few years. He said: “We are going to be in a position where we have to make our passports here in the UK biometric if UK citizens are to continue to enjoy the right to travel freely around the world.”

However, his cause was hampered further after a team at the London School of Economics predicted that the eventual cost of the scheme could total almost £20 billion, or £300 per card.

The LSE study estimates that implementing the scheme without running into technical difficulties or delays would cost a minimum of £10.6 million, but would almost double in a worst-case scenario. All the figures in the LSE report are much higher than the Government’s running costs of £5.6 billion over ten years.

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