By Edward Trower-
A French company has won the contract to produce Britain’s new dark blue passports, leading to criticism from some Brexiters who had heralded the change of colour as a symbol of the benefits of leaving the EU.
Gemalto, a security company based in Paris beat the UK’s De La Rue in winning the tender process ahead of the UK’s De La Rue.
Hampshire-based De La Rue has held the contract for producing UK passports worth £490m over a decade.
On Thursday, a Home Office spokesperson confirmed the government had selected a preferred bidder following “a rigorous, fair and open competition”. It said the winning bid for the 11.5-year contract would save taxpayers £120m.
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Gemalto won the contract to produce the new photo driving licence six years ago in 2012.
But Priti Patel, a Brexit-backing Conservative MP, complained awarding the contract to Gemalto was “a national humiliation”, while Bill Cash, another Tory backbencher, said it was “symbolically completely wrong”.
Labour said it was “farcical” that the government had given the contract to Gemalto “at the expense of the British economy”.
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“The irony is unreal,” said Eloise Todd, chief executive of Best for Britain, the anti-Brexit campaign group.
The new contract is set to begin in 2019 to coincide with Brexit, after which the UK will start issuing the new dark blue passports based on the “old” British passport last produced in 1988.
British passports were made by a state-owned company until its privatisation in 1996. The company making them, Security Printing and Systems Limited, was bought by private equity firms, then merged with a Germany company, before eventually being acquired by US manufacturer 3M in 2006.
Shares in De La Rue were down 5 per cent at 480p in mid-afternoon trading on Thursday. The company said in a statement that it had been “undercut on price” and was considering an appeal. It also complained that it was unable to bid for the contracts to produce French and German passports, because those countries invoke national security exemptions to EU procurement rules.
Martin Sutherland, De La Rue’s chief executive, hit out at the government over the decision. Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Thursday morning he said: “Over the last few months we have heard ministers happy to come on the media and talk about the new blue passport and the fact that it is an icon of British identity.
“But now this icon of British identity is going to be manufactured in France.”
He called on the prime minister Theresa May or home secretary Amber Rudd to “come to my factory and explain to our dedicated workforce why this is a sensible decision”.
The Home Office announced in December that Britain would phase out burgundy passports in favour of dark blue ones “in a move to symbolise our national identity”.
Guy Verhofstadt, the European Parliament’s Brexit co-ordinator, mocked the decision at the time, saying that because EU laws do not stipulate a colour the UK could have made the change while remaining in the bloc.
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