OSBORNE AND BLUE PASSPORT SCANDAL
His link to French firm
A FIRM that employs George Osborne partly owns the French company that won a controversial contract to make blue British passports.
BlackRock, a fund manager that pays the Tory former Chancellor £650,000 a year as an adviser, holds a 2.67% stake in Gemalto.
The Government awarded Gemalto the £490million deal to make post-Brexit passports from 2019, taking over from the current UK producer De La Rue.
It has put hundreds of jobs at risk and sparked outrage.
But on Twitter, pro-EU Mr Osborne attacked the “hypocrisy” of those angry at the decision.
And the newspaper he edits, the London Evening Standard, ran a gloating leader on Thursday.
It said: “A French-Dutch company has won the contract to print the new blue British passport. Surely this is exactly the kind of global free trade the Brexiteers told us they were in favour of ?”
PETITION
Unite the Union has joined forces with the Daily Mirror to get the passport contract decision reversed and 9,500 people had signed our petition yesterday.
Len McCluskey, Unite leader, said at least 200 jobs were at risk at De La Rue’s Gateshead plant.
Analysis showed the move would cost the local economy £7.3million a year in wages.
Mr McCluskey said: “The Tories took a decision that will cost UK workers their jobs.
“But to make matters worse, George Osborne may well profit from this betrayal through his links to BlackRock.”
There is no evidence Mr Osborne has personally profited from the contract going to Gemalto.
Yesterday peers called for a review of the deal. They heard the higher UK bid would have added an extra cost of 63p per passport.
Sign our petition at mirror. co.uk/madeinBritain.
THE blue passports row is showing no sign of dying down, and to the list of characters in this saga we may now add George Osborne.
The architect of Tory austerity gets £650,000 a year advising BlackRock, which has a stake in the French firm that won the contract with a lower bid than British rival De La Rue.
It will strike many as grotesquely unfair that wealthy Osborne benefits indirectly from an economic system that enriches the firm that’s paying him so handsomely while jeopardising the jobs of blameless workers.
It’s just like old times to see the former Chancellor doing very nicely, thanks, while others are worried sick about making ends meet.
Two Nations Britain is a rift we’ve yet to heal.