Britain gets blue passport blues as ‘made in the EU’ may be on the front

It was supposed to be a quick, easy win. With the EU negotiations slow and uncertain, the Government would give Leave voters something to cheer by introducing a new British passport, specially for Brexit. Ditching the EU’S burgundy for a patriotic blue, the passport would stand as a proud symbol of Britain’s newfound independence. The message would ring out loud and clear: we can go it alone. We don’t need the EU.

A foolproof plan. Or so it seemed until yesterday, when we learnt who was going to produce this proud symbol of British independence. The Government had rejected a company from Britain and instead chosen a company from France.

Cue a very awkward day for ministers: “Isn’t it just a little bit surprising that the British Government doesn’t support British business?” harrumphed Martin Sutherland on the Today programme. The boss of De La Rue, the British company that produces the UK’S EU passports, had naturally hoped to produce the non-eu ones, too.

John Humphrys asked Matt Hancock, the Culture Secretary, if he’d rather see a British company do it, forcing Mr Hancock into an unhappy choice – he could either upset a British company and Leave voters, or annoy the Prime Minister. “I’d like to see the Home Office getting an extremely good passport that we can all be proud of,” he said, hastily not answering.

In the Commons, Andrea Leadsom, Leader of the House and former Leave campaigner, tried to argue it was the EU’S fault. The Government had no choice but to let companies from the EU bid. “As a current EU member,” sniffed Mrs Leadsom, “we are subject to the EU’S procurement rules.”

An interesting argument, because one country that never lets any foreign country produce its passports is France. And France, unless we’ve all missed a reasonably significant piece of geopolitical news, is part of the EU. On the face of it, the manufacture of a passport may seem a minor issue, but it does raise an interesting question about the type of Brexit we want.

Priti Patel, a former Cabinet minister, told a newspaper that the Government’s decision was “perverse”, “astonishing”, “disgraceful”, and “a national humiliation”. Yet just six months ago, at the Conservative party conference, Mrs Patel declared that after Brexit “Britain can reassert itself as a global beacon for free trade, enterprise and free markets”.

Well, here was the free market in action: one company outbidding another for a contract to make passports. If MPS are urging us to become a “global Britain” that specialises in “buccaneering free trade”, they can hardly complain when another country does the same.

“Hey! France! Stop swashbuckling! That’s our job!”

Still, there we are. It will be interesting to see what the French do with our passports.

Especially if, on the front, they write “Made in the EU”.