Clause 18 Prohibition on requirements to produce identity cards
Identity Cards Bill
3:30 pm
Edward Garnier (Shadow Minister, (Assisted By Shadow Law Officers); Harborough, Conservative)
I did not want to intervene in the debate introduced by my hon. Friend the Member for Newark, but it is important to bear it in mind that several worries were expressed on Second Reading, not only by Conservative Members, but by Labour Back Benchers, that the Bill might lead to a sense of alienation among the ethnic minority communities, especially in the city nearest to my constituency, Leicester, which has a 35 per cent. ethnic minority population, and in the big cities. I note that all three Government Front Benchers represent city seats. Well, Leigh is part of Greater Manchester. I have been there. It is not exactly the rolling acres of rural Leicestershire, but that does not matter.
The point is that we all represent constituencies in which people will feel alienated to some extent because of things that are done to them by the Government. Given the matters under discussion and at such a time, it is particularly important that we are acutely sensitive to the need of the ethnic minorities not to feel outside the normal rights of the citizen. I hope that we can be reassured daily that the Government have that in mind. I am sure they do, but we simply cannot slide by such issues as a matter of course.