‘Passport colour switch just a gimmick’ – Rees
CHANGING the colour of UK passports from burgundy to blue after Brexit is no more than a gimmick, according to Shadow Welsh Secretary Christina Rees.
The Neath MP was reacting to an announcement of the change by Home Office Minister Brandon Lewis.
The new design, which will no longer include the European Union insignia, will replace the burgundy cover that has been a feature of the UK passport since the 1980s once Britain leaves the EU in 2019.
Home Office Minister Brandon Lewis said the new passport will be the “most hi-tech and secure we have ever seen”, making it more resistant to fraud and forgery.
A £490m contract to redesign and produce a new version of the document was announced earlier this year.
The passport is routinely redesigned every five years and Eurosceptics view the new contract as a way to ditch the EU burgundy cover in favour of a return to the colour of the past.
Mr Lewis said: “Leaving the EU gives us a unique opportunity to restore our national identity and forge a new path for ourselves in the world.
“It will also be one of the most secure travel documents in the world, with a raft of new security measures to protect against fraud and forgery.”
The new passports will be phased in after the UK leaves the EU on March 29, 2019.
Burgundy passports will continue to be issued, although without the European Union markings, until the current supplier’s contract expires in October 2019.
The new blue and gold design will then be issued to people renewing or applying for a new passport.
Blue was first used for the cover of the British passport in 1921, but the design changed in 1988 after the UK joined the European Economic Community and burgundy was chosen as the common colour.
Among the new design features will be a new picture page made of a “super-strength plastic polycarbonate material that will be more difficult to alter”, the Home Office said.
British passport holders do not need to do anything until their renewal date.
Ms Rees said: “The sight of senior Tory Ministers waxing lyrical about the colour of a passport cover would be funny were it not so pathetic.
“The simple fact is that, more than a year since the referendum, the UK Tory Government have floundered from one Brexit disaster to another, pulled every which way by the extreme wing of their own party. They are so desperate for a positive headline that they’ve been reduced to talking about blue passports.
“Before the Brexit referendum and since, the Tories have repeatedly said that Wales wouldn’t lose a penny of funding as a result of leaving the EU. That’s since been proven to be untrue. Instead of focusing on gimmicks like this, the UK Tory Government would be better off working with Labour in Wales and Westminster to actually secure a deal that won’t hit Welsh industry, investment and communities”.
Islwyn Labour AM Rhianon Passmore tweeted: “What a huge waste of money when families are going hungry and #UniversalCredit and #DLA #PIPCourtCase are ruining lives.”
Conservative MP Anna Soubry, a Remain supporter, tweeted: “Stand by for street parties as blue passports return. Not sure they’ll make up for broken £Leave promise of extra £350m a week for NHS.”