MERSEYSIDE and Cheshire would gain an extra 417 police officers on the beat under Lib-Dem plans to axe identity cards.

Mr Clegg said £1bn earmarked for the controversial ID card scheme would be spent on recruiting an extra 10,000 frontline offices to fight crime.

The cash would pay for an extra 281 beat officers in Merseyside and a further 136 in Cheshire over the lifetime of the next Parliament.

Mr Clegg claimed such an increase would – with the average officer making 10.3 arrests last year – be enough to arrest an extra 2,594 criminals in Merseyside and 1,240 in Cheshire.

He said: “Ten thousand more police on the street would mean a longer arm for the law.

“Labour has shown us their ‘tough talk on crime act’ has not worked, criminalising our young and packing our prisons.

“We have to take action to combat knife and youth crime. The best way to cut crime is for more criminals to feel their crimes will be detected and they will be prosecuted.”

The potential savings will be fiercely contested by the Government, which has insisted the bulk of the cost of the £4.9bn ID card project is going on biometric passports.

The number of police officers has grown sharply under Labour, but some claim unnecessary paperwork keeps too many off the beat.