It woz the 1952 Committee wot dun it

Well, probably not, but it's nice to kid on that we had an influence:

The Conservative Party will this week withdraw support for the Government's identity cards scheme, in a major climbdown by Michael Howard. The Tory leader has told aides that the party will abstain from a key vote on the controversial roposals on Thursday.

An abstention is obviously not as good as outright opposition, but is a lot better than outright support.

Link: The Sunday Telegraph