BRITONS will receive the new post-Brexit blue passports from next month, the United Kingdom (UK) Home Office has said.
It was learnt that the passports are being made by a Franco/Dutch company at a factory in Poland, under European Union (EU) procurement rules.
Ironically, the £260 million contract, which will run for the 11-year, was won by a subsidiary of the French multinational group Thales last year, after its British competitor, De La Rue, lost out.
As a result, all the new passports will be made at the company’s factory in the Polish town of Tczew and then imported into the UK. At the time the contract was signed, the government said it would create 70 new jobs in Britain.
Ministers hailed the rollout of the new passports yesterday as a “unique opportunity to restore our national identity” after Brexit.
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UK Home Secretary Priti Patel said: “By returning to the iconic blue and gold design, the British passport will once again be entwined with our national identity and I cannot wait to travel on one.
“Leaving the European Union gave us a unique opportunity to restore our national identity and forge a new path in the world.”
The colour will be the same as the old-style British passports that were issued before 1988, when the UK adopted the burgundy EU documents. The UK could have kept the traditional dark blue but chose not to.
The colour is not the only change: the back cover will now carry the floral emblems of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, while the identity page will be made from the same material used to manufacture bulletproof glass.
It will be phased in for new applicants and those renewing their existing passports from next month.
The decision to award the contract to Gemalto, a subsidiary of Thales, was controversial, with Martin Sutherland, the chief executive of De La Rue, challenging Theresa May over the decision when she visited the company’s Geteshead plant. He demanded that she “explain to my dedicated workforce why it’s sensible to off-shore the manufacture of a British icon”.
De La Rue later pulled out of the passport printing business putting about 200 jobs at risk. It had spent €4 million on bidding to renew the contract that it held for producing the UK’s EU passport.
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