ASHFORD Tory MP Damian Green says he intends to vote against Government plans to bring in ID cards, saying they will be a waste of money and do little to improve security.

MPs will debate the Government’s Bill that sets out the proposals next week.

Mr Green will be at odds with his own party leader over the issue. Michael Howard said this week the Conservative shadow cabinet would back ID cards and was forced to deny his party was split over the plans.

He said the police had said ID cards could "help them foil a terror bomb plot in which people could lose their lives".

"When the police say that you have to take them seriously," stressed Mr Howard.

But the Ashford MP said: “The Government is preparing to set up a system that could cost up to £10million and may not be available until 2012.

"It is a cock-eyed way of tackling terrorism and benefit fraud and I am pretty sure there are better ways of spending the money and actually dealing on the very real problems that do exist.”

His instinct as a Conservative was that “we should do as much as possible to preserve personal freedom” and that some people in the party felt the principle was “illiberal.”

While polls suggested most people backed the idea “when you explain the costs and practicalities” that support dropped.

The Government’s track record on introducing complex computer systems meant the idea that the Government would be able to deal with the details of 16 million people was “laughable,” he added.