‘We will fight this decision’
PASSPORT FIRM WILL BATTLE GOVERNMENT ON CHOICE
THE boss of speciality print firm De La Rue has vowed to fight a Government decision to make the UK passport abroad after meeting staff on Tyneside whose jobs have been put in jeopardy by the move.
Ministers have defended the selection of Franco-Dutch firm Gemalto to make the post-Brexit blue passport, saying the choice will save taxpayers about £120m.
But the Government has come under fire over the decision after it put at risk 200 jobs at the De La Rue plant in Gateshead, which has the current contract to produce the UK passport.
The row has been heightened by the Government’s announcement in December that the UK passport would change from the standard EU burgundy colour to a blue and gold design when the EU comes out of Europe, billing the new passport as an “expression of our independence and sovereignty”.
Now Martin Sutherland, CEO of De La Rue, has vowed to fight the contract decision, with the company likely to submit an appeal next week and working on grounds for a judicial review.
After a visit to the Gateshead plant, he said: “I have met the team in Gateshead... who are disappointed about the Government’s decision. After providing such a fantastic service for the last nine years, it is a real blow for them.
“I have pledged that we will continue to fight to get this decision overturned so that the production of the British passport stays here in the UK where it belongs and is made by the great team here in Gateshead.”
De La Rue, which employs around 600 people at Gateshead and also prints currency for a number of foreign governments, has around two years of the current passport contract.
Mr Sutherland – who has challenged Prime Minister Theresa May and Home Secretary Amber Rudd to visit Gateshead to explain the decision to the workforce – hasn’t said how the Tyneside jobs would be affected but did say the company would have to find new work. The Home Office says that around £120m would be saved during the lifetime of the 11-and-a-half year contract, while up to 70 jobs will be created at factories in Fareham, Hampshire, and Heywood, Greater Manchester. Blaydon MP Liz Twist has visited the plant and has vowed to raise the issue with Ministers. She said: “My concern is that our Government has really let these workers down. “I was really gobsmacked, with all the fuss that was made about blue passports, that the contract hasn’t gone to a UK company. “There’s a real irony of the iconic blue passport being produced by a French-Dutch company.”
There’s a real irony of the iconic blue passport being produced by a French-Dutch company
Liz Twist MP