Brexit: Blue British Passports Return In March 2020

British passports will return to their original blue colour for the first time since 1988 from March when the UK government will issue the first blue passports since the Brexit vote.

The passports will 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 blue passports will also feature a new symbolic design on the back cover featuring the floral emblems of England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales.

“Leaving the European Union gave us a unique opportunity to restore our national identity and forge a new path in the world,”

said home secretary Priti Patel.

Blue passports were introduced in 1921 and phased out after 1988 when members of the then European Economic Community agreed to harmonise designs.

Home Secretary Priti Patel said the passport will “once again be entwined with our national identity”.

Source: BBC, The Guardian