Home Secretary Theresa May has moved to scrap the controversial £5 billion national identity card scheme, declaring it "intrusive, bullying and ineffective".
Declaring herself "very pleased" to be wielding the axe to ID cards, she claimed the move that would lead to a "Millennium Dome's" worth of savings - or nearly £900 million for the taxpayer.
She claimed the cards were "un-British" and represented "the worst of Government".
The Government was sending a signal of its intention to conduct business differently, as the servants of the public and not their masters, she told MPs.
Ms May was speaking during second reading debate of the Identity Documents Bill, which will invalidate all existing cards within one month of the Bill becoming law.
It will also destroy all information held on the National Identity Register, effectively dismantling it. The role of the Identity Commissioner, created in an effort to prevent data blunders and leaks, will be terminated.
Around 15,000 members of the public who had paid £30 for one of the cards would not be compensated, Ms May stressed.
Speaking as the first piece of legislation was debated in the Commons, Ms May said: "The national identity card scheme represents the worst of Government. It is intrusive and bullying, ineffective and expensive. It is an assault on individual liberty that does not promise a greater good. The Bill is therefore partly symbolic, it sends a message that the Government is going to do business in a different way. We are the servants of the people and not their masters."
She added: "We have no hesitation in making the national identity card scheme an unfortunate footnote in history. There it should remain, a less happy time when the government allowed hubris to trump civil liberties."
Shadow home secretary Alan Johnson said Labour would not vote against the Bill, as he accepted the mandate of the Government to abolish them, but he pointed out the "inconsistency" of the Tory position, as they had backed ID cards up to and through the 2005 general election.
