Tony Blair on Monday played down fears over the cost of introducing identity cards, insisting there would only be an extra £30 to pay on top of the fee for a new biometric passport.

Addressing journalists at his monthly press conference the prime minister said he was confident the public backed the government’s plans for ID cards on principle and were only concerned about the fee they would have to pay. A Mail on Sunday poll at the weekend showed only one in 10 would be prepared to pay £100 for a card - the cost estimated by an internal Home Office memo if people had to subsidise the one-fifth of the population unlikely to want to renew their passports.