UK firm to challenge post-brexit passport deal

LONDON: British manufacturer De La Rue said it would challenge a decision by Britain to award a contract to print the post-brexit blue passports to a European company.

The new blue British passports, hailed by Prime Minister Theresa May as “an expression of our independence and sovereignty”, would be made by a Franco-dutch firm after Britain leaves the European Union, De La Rue said.

Media reports said the firm was Gemalto, although it had not confirmed those reports. Gemalto produces British driving licences.

De La Rue, which makes banknotes and passports, said it would seek a judicial review of the provisional decision to award the British passport contract to an overseas company after it was undercut.

“Based on our knowledge of the market, it’s our view that ours was the highest quality and technically most secure bid,” a De La Rue spokesperson said in a statement, adding that though its tender represented a significant discount on the current price, it accepted that it wasn’t the cheapest.

The decision to produce the passport abroad made embarrassing headlines for May, who announced in December that Britain would switch back to the dark blue it had used for decades.

A Daily Mail newspaper petition to have the new passports made by a British company collected more than 265 000 signatures.

Britain’s current burgundy passports were introduced in 1988, following EU recommendations. But the EU does not require the colour scheme and Croatia, which joined the EU in 2013, retained its blue passport with no plans to change it.

Britain’s interior ministry defended its decision not to award De La Rue the contract, saying the preferred bidder was selected “following a rigorous, fair and open competition”.

Britain’s biggest trade union, Unite, hit out at the government’s choice and said the French government would never have made such a move.

De La Rue’s current contract, which ends in July next year, is worth £400 million (R6.65 billion). The new contract will start in October 2019 after Britain leaves the EU in March.

Shares in De La Rue were little changed yesterday, having fallen 6% when it said it had lost the contract in March. – Reuters