{"id":353753,"date":"2018-03-25T04:45:58","date_gmt":"2018-03-25T03:45:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/isnt-it-ironic-uk-takes-back-control-by-asking-foreign-firm-to-make-new-blue-passports-video-rt-uk-news\/"},"modified":"2018-03-25T04:45:58","modified_gmt":"2018-03-25T03:45:58","slug":"isnt-it-ironic-uk-takes-back-control-by-asking-foreign-firm-to-make-new-blue-passports-video-rt-uk-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/isnt-it-ironic-uk-takes-back-control-by-asking-foreign-firm-to-make-new-blue-passports-video-rt-uk-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Isn\u2019t it ironic? UK \u2018takes back control\u2019 by asking foreign firm to make new blue passports (VIDEO) \u2014 RT UK News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdni.rt.com\/files\/2018.03\/thumbnail\/5ab36852dda4c8b0408b4597.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>        The Brexit campaign pledged that the UK would \u201ctake back control\u201d of its businesses and borders. However, it has now emerged that a foreign company is on course to beat a British one for the contract to make new passports.<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The Home Office has reportedly stripped UK company De La Rue of its long-standing contract to produce the nation\u2019s identity documents. It\u2019s understood the task is likely to be assigned to Gemalto, a firm listed on French and Dutch stock exchanges. It will make \u00a3450 million ($637 million) from the lucrative contract.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"900\" height=\"506\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/h__NS4gqYk0\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; encrypted-media\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Changing the color of British passports from the EU\u2019s favored burgundy to the UK\u2019s traditional blue was held up by some Brexiteers as a bold sign of returning national sovereignty. The news has angered pro-Leave politicians, with former cabinet minister Priti Patel dubbing it <em>\u201ca disgraceful decision\u201d<\/em> and<em> \u201cperverse.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rt.com\/uk\/413940-brexit-passport-changes-blue\/\">READ MORE: Brexit blues? Britain&#8217;s burgundy passports to get old-school makeover<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em\/>Liberal Democrat Brexit spokesman Tom Brake said:<em> \u201cThe blue passport saga is turning into a farce. First, it was established that we did not have to leave the EU to have blue passports. Now, we learn that the passports will be printed by a foreign company. And to add insult to injury, we will pay over the odds for them because the value of the pound has fallen since Brexit and they will have to be imported.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"900\" height=\"506\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4WIgCmgmFi4\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; encrypted-media\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The public took to Twitter to mock the move and point out the irony of outsourcing the contract to \u2018restore British sovereignty\u2019 to a foreign country.<\/p>\n<div class=\"rtcode\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-cards=\"hidden\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Taking back control. But not, apparently, the ability to print our own passports. <br \/>Brexiteers furious as Franco-Dutch company poised to win contract to make iconic blue British passport <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/prqHomfK7w\">https:\/\/t.co\/prqHomfK7w<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Diane Abbott (@HackneyAbbott) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/HackneyAbbott\/status\/976726147324108800?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 22, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"rtcode\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Surely I\u2019m dreaming. British passport post Brexit taken away from Gateshead uk company and awarded to France! The irony of it. Feel for workers in Gateshead.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 josephine coyle (@foodiecommuter) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/foodiecommuter\/status\/976735714158301184?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 22, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"rtcode\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The making of the post Brexit British Passport was awarded to a French company. Tally Ho, this keeps getting funnier (tragic as well) by day. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Brexit?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Brexit<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Cristi Datcu (@cristi_datcu) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/cristi_datcu\/status\/976735531261399041?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 22, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<p>On Wednesday night, the Home Office insisted that no final decision had yet been made on where the new passports would be printed. A spokeswoman said:<em> \u201cWe are running a fair and open competition to ensure that the new contract delivers a high quality and secure product and offers the best value for money for customers.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cWe do not require passports to be manufactured in the UK. A proportion of blank passport books are currently manufactured overseas, and there are no security or operational reasons why this would not continue.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Theresa May told the House of Commons in February:<em> \u201cIt is right that from autumn 2019 we will issue new blue and gold passports, which have always been the UK\u2019s colors of choice for our passports. It is absolutely right that, after we leave the European Union, we return to deciding the color of passports that we want, not that the EU wants.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>If you like this story, share it with a friend!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"http:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Via <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rt.com\/uk\/421996-british-passport-eu-company\/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=RSS\">RT<\/a>. This piece was reprinted by <a href=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\">RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Brexit campaign pledged that the UK would \u201ctake back control\u201d of its businesses and borders. However, it has now emerged that a foreign company is on course to beat a British one for the contract to make new passports. The Home Office has reportedly stripped UK company De La Rue of its long-standing contract [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":353754,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-353753","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=353753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353753\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/353754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=353753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=353753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=353753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}