We consider finite element approximations of ill-posed elliptic problems with conditional stability. The notion of {\emph{optimal error estimates}} is defined including both convergence with respect to mesh parameter and perturbations in data. The rate of convergence is determined by the conditional stability of the underlying continuous problem and the polynomial order of the finite element approximation space. A proof is given that no finite element approximation can converge at a better rate than that given by the definition, justifying the concept. A recently introduced class of finite element methods with weakly consistent regularisation is recalled and the associated error estimates are shown to be quasi optimal in the sense of our definition.

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