Blue passports to be issued from next month to mark Brexit
Home Secretary Priti Patel holding a blue passport. Photograph: Home Office/PA Wire. - Credit: PA
For the first time in three decades blue passports will be issued to mark Britain's departure from the European Union.
The new-look documents, that were championed by Brexiteers, will replace the burgundy passports which were rolled out in 1988.
The contract to produce the passports was controversially awarded to French firm Thales, but the documents will continue to be personalised with the holder's details in the UK.
The first new passports will be issued from the beginning of March, and the govenrment hope that by mid-2020 all new passports will be blue.
As well as the colour change, the back cover of the new passports will now feature embossed floral emblems of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
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Home secretary Priti Patel said that by returning to the "iconic" blue and gold design, the passports will "once again be entwined with our national identity".
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