There are many rules in politics. One, which has stood the test of time, is: 'If you can't convince someone of something, put it in a minor clause'.

There's every indication the Home Office intends to do that with ID cards today through the immigration and citizenship bill. It looks like rules allowing immigration officers or policemen to check you identity at ports of entry will be extended throughout the country.

There will be no law requiring you to produce a card, but the legislation would have the effect of making it necessary. How do they get away with it? Well, the rules would only apply to people who have entered the UK. So, as long as you've never left the country, you'll be fine. Feel free to laugh.

This is, in essence, a statement of intent. For some time now it appeared the government was backing down slightly on ID cards and the security agenda in general. The home secretary's promise to impose the cards on all airport workers shrivelled up into a pilot scheme for two airports last month. Private coroner's inquests and 42-day detention both bit the dust.

This morning, everything looks different. Private coroner's inquests will almost certainly be found nestling in the coroners and death investigation bill. ID cards in the immigration bill. Lie detector tests for benefit cheats are on the welfare reform agenda. It seems civil liberties activists, who yesterday thought they had had a relatively successful year, now have every reason to stay active.

The reason analysts are reading so much into this minor clause is because of how far it goes. At no point has anyone in government supporting ID cards admitted British citizens would be forced to provide them on demand in the street, but that is exactly what the clause would do. Refusing the demand could see you landed with a £500 fine or even a prison sentence of up to 51 weeks.

The response was instantaneous. "Sneaking in compulsory identity cards via the back door of immigration law is a cynical escalation of this expensive and intrusive scheme," said Liberty director Shami Chakrabarti.

Lib Dem home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne said: "Ministers seem to be breaking their promise that no one would ever have to carry an ID card. This is a sly and underhand way of extending the ID card scheme by stealth."

Tory immigration minister Damian Green - yes, that one - said: "This scheme will do nothing to improve our security, may make it worse, and will certainly land the taxpayer with a multi-million bill."

And that's not all. In their submission on the bill during consultation, campaign group No2ID highlighted several other ugly aspects.

"NO2ID believes the draft bill represents a massive change to common law rights and culture disguised as codification. It includes provisions which, if implemented, would have serious consequences not only for people from other countries living in or visiting the UK, but also British citizens," they told MPs.

Clause one of the bill makes entry to the UK wholly dependent on identification, rather than your British citizenship. Lose it, or have the government invalidate it, and you will find yourself in legal limbo.

"Though committee members might consider casual incompetence or fraud more likely, the effect for the individual would be the same," No2ID said.

If your documents fail - say because the microchip in the passport ceases to function - you could be deemed not to have entered the UK under clause 22. Suddenly you can be legally 'returned' to whichever country you were last in or held in an immigrant detention centre without remedy. This isn't as unlikely as you might think. The microchip in the new all-singing, all-dancing biometric passport has a two-year manufacturer's warranty. The passport is meant to last for ten.

This is what the Home Office had to say: "It is simply wrong to claim there are any plans whatsoever to make identity cards compulsory for British citizens or to require British citizens to have an ID card at all times and present it when asked. To maintain effective immigration control it is only right that we ask everyone attempting to enter the UK to produce a valid identity document."

The question is, do you believe them?

 
Ian Dunt