Blue Brexit passports to be issued from next month

Blue passports will be issued for the first time in
almost three decades from next month to mark Britain’s departure from the EU,
the government has announced.
They will replace the standard-issue burgundy
passports that were rolled out across EU countries from 1988.
The home secretary, Priti Patel, welcomed the switch
back to blue, but pro-European campaigners and nationalist politicians in
Northern Ireland predicted the new passports would result in Britons entering
the slow lane at airports and ports throughout the EU.
The Home Office says the blue passport will be “the
greenest British passport ever”. A spokesperson said: “The carbon footprint
produced through manufacture will be reduced to net zero, through projects such
as planting trees.”
It is also promoting the passport as the most
technologically advanced. The spokesperson said there was “a raft of new and
updated security features, including a hard-wearing, super-strength
polycarbonate data page, which contains innovative technologies embedded into
the document, to keep personal data secure”.
The new-look passport incorporates the latest and
most secure printing and design techniques, the spokesperson said, which would
offer better protection against identity theft and fraud.
Patel said: “Leaving the European Union gave us a
unique opportunity to restore our national identity and forge a new path in the
world. By returning to the iconic blue and gold design, the British passport
will once again be entwined with our national identity and I cannot wait to
travel on one.”
The home secretary’s enthusiasm was not shared by
the European Movement. Edward McMillan-Scott, the group’s patron and an MEP for
30 years, said the blue passport would be seen as offensive to many Europeans.
“It will be seen as a symbol of the attitude
prevailing in the Conservative party towards the rest of Europe that is
isolationist, ignorant and self-destructive,” he said.
McMillan-Scott said recent scenes captured on
Twitter of long queues at passport control in Amsterdam’s Schipol airport
involving British tourists were “only the precursor for what is to come with
these passports”.
He said: “When I was an MEP, I remember being given
a special blue pass that was meant to make it easier for me to pass through
border checks on my way to Brussels and Strasbourg. It was more hassle than it
was worth because some border officials weren’t sure what the document was and
we got held up with endless checks.
“So I threw it away and started using my normal
burgundy-coloured UK passport – the same colour as everyone else passing
through the EU. Without doubt this marking out of British passport holders by
having another colour will make life uncomfortable, especially for the millions
travelling to the EU.”
Claire Hanna, the pro-European Social Democratic and
Labour MP for Belfast South, said: “The fact that this is being lauded as a big
win sums up Brexit. The colour changes but the opportunity and potential has
been restricted. In this case, blue will represent economic harm and limited
horizons for the passport holder, and that is a crying shame.”