Sturgeon scorns plan to bring back blue cover on passports
SCOTLAND’S FIRST Minister Nicola Sturgeon has poured scorn on plans to bring back the blue cover for the British passport as “insular, inward-looking nonsense”.
The SNP leader clashed publicly with Theresa May after the Prime Minister hailed the move as an expression of the UK’s postBrexit “sovereignty and independence”.
The spat was sparked by a Home Office announcement that British passports will again have blue covers once the UK has left the EU in 2019.
The new design, which will no longer include the EU insignia, will replace the EU-style burgundy cover that has been a feature of the UK passport since the 1980s.
Mrs May 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 #bluepassport will return after we leave the European Union in 2019.”
That prompted Ms Sturgeon to tweet back: “The open, inclusive, civic, internationalist Scottish independence movement that I’m so proud to be part of could not be further removed from this insular, inward-looking, blue passport-obsessed nonsense. Never has ‘stop the world, Scotland wants to get on’ felt more relevant.”
Announcing the change, Home Office Minister Brandon Lewis said the new passport would be the “most hi-tech and secure we have ever seen”.
It follows the announcement earlier this year of a £490m contract to redesign and produce a new version of the document.
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 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.