Nigel Morris and Colin Brown write in The Independent:

Senior cabinet ministers are privately discussing a plan to scrap the Government’s £5bn identity cards programme as part of cuts to public spending, The Independent has learnt.

The ministers believe that some “sacred cows” will have to be sacrificed in the effort to reduce Britain’s debt mountain. They are raising fresh questions over the future of the ID card programme as the Cabinet faces renewed pressure to find economies beyond a promised £9bn in “efficiency savings”.

“My sense is that ID cards will not go ahead,” a senior Cabinet Minister said. “We have to find savings somewhere, and it would be better to shelve schemes like this that aren’t popular.”