Join the fight to save British passport jobs
We join battle to have new blue passports made by UK workers
THERESA May is facing fury after it emerged a French firm will make our post-Brexit blue passports.
And today the Mirror and the Unite union hit back with a campaign to keep the work here and save hundreds of jobs.
Tyneside-based De La Rue, which currently holds the contract, lost out to Franco-Dutch firm Gemalto in a move said to save £120million.
Angry De La Rue boss Martin Sutherland said: “We have heard Ministers talk about the new blue passport and the fact it is an icon of British identity.
“But now this icon is going to be manufactured in France.”
He challenged the PM and Home Secretary to meet his staff to explain.
And he added: “I’m going to have to face those workers, look them in the whites of the eyes and try to explain why the government thinks it’s sensible to buy French passports not British ones.”
Ministers say EU rules mean they cannot favour a UK company and must choose the best-value bid. But both and Germany ban foreign firms from making their passports on the grounds of “national security”.
The Home Office said the rule that all UK passports should be made here was changed in 2009 with 20% now coming from abroad.
In December the PM tweeted: “The UK passport is an expression of our independence and sovereignty – symbolising our citizenship of a proud, great nation. That’s why we have announced that the iconic blue passport will return after we leave the EU.”
Our campaign demands that the identity documents will continue to be manufactured in the UK and urges the government to reopen the tendering process. Yesterday Unite boss Len McCluskey said at least 200 jobs were at risk at De La Rue’s Gateshead plant.
He added: “Instead of taking back control, the Government is doing things on the cheap.
“Even for Theresa May’s calamity Conservatives, this one takes the biscuit.”
He pointed to De La Rue’s flawless record and added: “I can hear Monsieur Macron laughing all the way over the Channel as he counts the cents that will roll into his Treasury.” The award of the £490million five-year contract to Gemalto provoked dismay on both sides of the EU debate.
Brexiteer Sir Bill Cash said: “It is incongruous to say the least. It is comFrance pletely unnecessary and symbolically completely wrong.” Fellow Brexiteer and former cabinet minister Priti Patel called it “disgraceful” and “perverse”.
Eloise Todd, boss of pro-EU Best for Britain, said: “The new blue passports were supposed to be a statement of intent and now we find they are to be made by the French.
“The irony is unreal. I guess ‘Brexit Blue’ is now classed as ‘French Navy’.”
Gemalto, which has its HQ in Paris and a factory in Fareham, Hants, said: “As the process is ongoing we cannot make any further comment.”
The Home Office said a winning bid had been chosen but it was up to the supplier to announce the news. It added that 70 jobs would be created in the UK at Fareham and Heywood Lancs.
Shares in De La Rue, which last year had 600 staff in Gateshead, fell 6%.
The row overshadowed the PM’s trip to Brussels for a crunch EU Council summit. Leaders are today set to rubber stamp a Brexit deal, allowing talks to switch to a future trade relationship.
I’m going to have to face those workers, look them in the whites of the eyes & try to explain to them why the British Government thinks it’s a sensible decision to buy French passports not British ones – DE LA RUE BOSS MARTIN SUTHERLAND, YESTERDAY
BRITISH passports, whatever their colour, should be produced here, so the printing contract crossing the Channel is hugely controversial, particularly when it puts at risk up to 200 jobs in the North East.
The boss of the company making the current documents, De La Rue, has big questions to answer if it is right it intended to bill the Government as much as £120million more than its rival for the service.
Passport workers in Gateshead have been badly let down and we hope it is not too late to save their jobs by undoing the deal.
The Brexit elite promising free trade when Britain leaves the European Union are challenged by the irony of a Franco-Dutch organisation proposing a lower-cost agreement to clinch the business for the new blue version to replace the existing burgundy.
Surely it is not beyond the wit of Tory ministers to find a reason to reopen the tendering process.
The combination of a guileless Conservative Government and a complacent company undercut by a foreign rival is a threat both to British jobs and British prestige.