SWAMPED!
Thousands post passport petitions to Mail – as the total surges to 200,000
THE number of signatures on the Daily Mail’s passport petition neared 200,000 last night.
Our offices have also been swamped with letters calling for post-Brexit blue passports to be made in Britain.
More than 185,000 readers have signed up online to back the campaign – and at least 11,029 others have written in to show their support. Dozens more sacks stuffed with an estimated 10,000 letters are yet to be counted.
It came as industry figures warned that hundreds of British businesses could be hit by the decision to make the passports abroad. Politicians accused Theresa May of ‘penny-pinching’ and
‘Selling out British jobs’
‘selling out’ on her Brexit vision. The Prime Minister has declined to guarantee the passport deal will not be finalised over the Easter recess before Parliament gets a chance to debate it fully. Questioned by Labour’s Liz Twist yesterday, Mrs May said the Home Office was following a ‘proper process’ which will ensure passport production gives ‘good value to the taxpayer’.
Ministers have faced fury over the decision to award the contract for the travel documents to Franco-Dutch firm Gemalto. MPs fear the deal could be finalised while the Commons is in recess from tomorrow until April 16. De La Rue, the British company that makes the current burgundy passports, has days to lodge an appeal against the move, which puts up to 200 jobs at its Gateshead plant at risk.
Louisa Bull, of the Unite union, said up to 400 related businesses could be affected by the decision. Charles Jarrold, chief executive of the British Printing Industries Federation, called the move ‘ bitterly disappointing’.
Tory peer Lord Naseby has tabled a written question in the Lords questioning whether the contract should go to Gemalto given that it is 26 per cent owned by the French government, which would profit from the deal. He told the Mail: ‘ It is insensitive and penny-pinching to thrust on the British a French produced passport from a [part] state- owned company which does not have to make a profit.
‘ I ask the Prime Minister, “please think again, if you reject the French passport you will be a hero to the British people”.’
The Home Office says the outsourcing move could save up to £120million. At a protest outside Parliament yesterday more MPs waded into the row and accused Mrs May of ‘selling out’ at a time when British industry needs bolstering ahead of Brexit.
Andrew Gwynne, Labour’s shadow communities and local government secretary, said: ‘It’s a sell-out because it’s selling out British jobs, it’s selling out on an image of Britain post-Brexit and it doesn’t save money in the long run so it’s a no-brainer, let’s keep these jobs.’