THE Home Secretary's opposite number raised concerns over plans for a national ID card while visiting the University of York.

Shadow Home Secretary David Davis said, while speaking to a meeting organised by the university's Conservative association, he "did not like" the idea of a national ID card.

He said: "I am very loathe to give any sort of government the sort of power to put all there is to know about you on a government file."

But Mr Davis then said that as it was a "virtual certainty" there would be some mass-casualty act of terror in this country, it was the Home Secretary's duty to look at and consider all options.

Mr Davis, who grew up in Walmgate, York, and is MP for East Yorkshire constituency Haltemprice and Howden, set out his philosophy of Conservatism at the meeting. He described himself as "a low tax Tory," and said he believed in a small state, the nation state and individual freedom.

Updated: 10:30 Saturday, May 01, 2004