Blunkett: I want my money back over ID cards

Home Secretary Theresa May announced on Thursday that the national identity register will be scrapped within 100 days, and existing cards will become invalid.

Thousands of people are believed to have been issued with ID cards, which could be used to prove their identity or travel within Europe.

Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough MP Mr Blunkett, who first announced plans for ID cards in 2003, dismissed suggestions that they formed part of a "surveillance state".

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "I have got a card and it's very useful and I don't believe anyone has surveilled anything about me.

"Unfortunately, nobody is getting their money back. I'm thinking of suing them, but it might cost me more than 30."

The former home secretary accused Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg of "exaggeration and hyperbole and self-deception" over the supposed intrusiveness of the national identity register and the savings available from abolishing it.

He said that scrapping the cards "won't change anything for anyone out there" but will make it harder for security services to fight terrorism and for the Government to clamp down on fraud and misuse of the NHS.

Dylan Sharpe, campaign director of civil liberties group Big Brother Watch, said: "David Blunkett and his former government are already costing the taxpayer millions getting out of the long, expensive contracts for an intrusive scheme that nobody wanted.

"Now he's threatening to drain more funds in a legal challenge with no reasonable foundation."