last night MPs backed plans for identity cards costing between £6bn and £18bn - despite Tony Blair missing the vote because he was stranded on a South African runway.

A bid by opposition parties and rebel Labour MPs to prevent the automatic issuing of an ID card to anyone renewing their passport after 2008 was defeated.

The Tories and Liberal Democrats dubbed the move "compulsion by stealth", arguing it made a nonsense of Government claims the scheme would, initially, be voluntary. But the Government won the crucial vote by 310 votes to 279, a comfortable majority of 31, despite a revolt by 20 Labour backbenchers. The majority would have been 32 but for the prime minister's failure to return to Britain in time after a Sunday night scare as his flight prepared to take off.

The take-off was aborted after the pilot spotted problems with an engine. Mr Blair said: "Another few seconds and we would have been in the air. Suddenly there was a bang."

Last night's victory eased the pressure on the Prime Minister, who faces further crucial Commons votes today on smoking in pubs and tomorrow on anti-terror laws.

It followed a Government compromise when it bowed to a House of Lords demand that a fresh Bill be brought before Parliament before the cards become compulsory.

Mr Blair was also helped when Chancellor Gordon Brown threw his weight behind identity cards, arguing they were crucial to fight the use of multiple identities by terrorists.

Mr Brown's intervention crushed the hopes of rebel Labour MPs that, once in No 10, he would abandon the scheme if costs ballooned.

However, the Bill must now go back to the House of Lords, which ripped up large parts of it earlier this year - including removing the automatic issuing of ID cards with passports. Shadow Home Secretary David Davis had warned MPs against "sleepwalking into a surveillance state" by making cards compulsory in everything but name.

But Home Secretary Charles Clarke said the link was vital to ensure a "sensible, phased introduction", using renewals of passports.

Joint biometric passport and ID cards are likely to cost about £93, although cut-price stand-alone ID cards will be available for £30.

A study by the London School of Economics claimed ID cards could cost up to £18bn - three times the Home Office's £5.8bn estimate.