More than 200,000 readers call for post-Brexit blue passports to be made in Britain

show ad

'I heard wheels spin. And then I saw her body flung to the curb': Horrifying moment grandmother, 61, is hit by a POLICE CAR which then speeds away during Stephon Clark vigil in Sacramento
Dramatic moment Louisville cop leans through a car window inches from female passenger and shoots and injures black suspect who complained he was being 'harassed' before he pulled a revolver and fired
Speedometer in lesbian couple's SUV was 'pinned' at 90 mph after they drove their car with their six adopted children 100 feet off Pacific Coast Highway cliff, court documents reveal
Clock strikes midnight! Loyola-Chicago's Cinderella story ends in defeat as they lose 69-57 to Michigan who move on to face Villanova in the NCAA March Madness finale
New York congressman 'used his position to help his partner's son get out of police custody after he was arrested over heroin offences'
Sixth-grade teacher delivers 15-minute rant claiming Trump's MAGA slogan is a call to bring segregation back and accuses white students of being descended from mass killers
Who's going to stop them? Army of more than 1,000 Central Americans fleeing violence and unrest march unchallenged through Mexico towards the US border
Hawaii beach closed after man, 25, is attacked by a shark while paddleboarding with his father
Denver-bound Delta flight forced to make emergency landing at JFK airport aftter striking a bird at 500ft
Riddle of the death plunge model: US cryptocurrency tycoon and his wife who had threesome with girl, 18, at their home before she fell 14 floors to her death break their silence to insist it was an accident
Officer shoots dead 60-year-old black passenger during routine traffic stop as he reached for his gun
'It'll be a splendid show': China insists eight tonne space station is unlikely to cause any damage when it crashes to earth over Easter weekend and says it will be like a meteor shower
Counselor, 25, at $19,000-a-year private school in South Carolina admits to sexual relationship with a student 'aged 16 or 17' who she would text in the day then meet in her private office after hours
'His life was dedicated to the service of others': Firefighters line the streets in Long Island to pay their respects to colleague and serviceman killed in Iraq helicopter crash
REVEALED: Tesla involved in crash that killed driver WAS on autopilot after victim's family say he complained about the technology veering toward VERY SAME safety barrier he smashed into
The bridesmaid who might outsparkle Ms Markle: Meghan's likely Maid of Honour dubbed 'the Gwyneth Paltrow of Toronto' is a glamorous, impossibly well-connected professional wedding planner
From Hollywood to Royal Highness: Diana's biographer tells how Meghan Markle sees Harry's mother as a role model in new book that reveals the bride-to-be dumped her ex-husband by POST and mailed back the rings
From Vegas... to Vegan! Ultimate proof new-age Meghan has made her Markle on Harry as one-time bad-boy Prince looks set to spend his stag do doing YOGA at spiritual yurt retreat in Wales
Rubbing shoulders with royalty: Trump poses with Italian aristocrat Princess Camilla of Bourbon Two Sicilies and her family at Mar-a-Lago as she gushes about her 'wonderful evening' with the president
Trump takes a swipe at California governor 'Moonbeam' for pardoning 'five criminal illegal aliens' before they face deportation
REVEALED: Trump spent $27,000 of taxpayer money to track media reports the day after Stormy Daniels sued him over alleged affair
'This Post Office scam must stop. Amazon must pay real costs (and taxes) now!' Trump turns up the heat on Jeff Bezos in furious two-pronged Twitter attack against the billionaire's online retail business AND the Washington Post
'He deserves to be imprisoned with his own breed': Masked protesters release live RATS inside a Trump hotel room and put a mock POTUS in a locked cage filled with McDonald's wrappers
Scott Pruitt's security guard SMASHED a glass door of his $50-a-night Capitol Hill apartment to 'save him' because he thought he was unconscious but he was just NAPPING

More than 185,000 readers have signed online to back the passports campaign
And at least another 11,029 others have written in the Mail to show their support
Prime Minister has declined to guarantee whether passports will be made in UK

By David Churchill For The Daily Mail

Published: 18:24 EDT, 28 March 2018 | Updated: 18:50 EDT, 28 March 2018

e-mail

379

View
comments

The number of signatures on the Daily Mail’s passport petition neared 200,000 last night.

Our offices have also been swamped with letters calling for post-Brexit blue passports to be made in Britain.

More than 185,000 readers have signed up online to back the campaign – and at least 11,029 others have written in to show their support. Dozens more sacks stuffed with an estimated 10,000 letters are yet to be counted.

It came as industry figures warned that hundreds of British businesses could be hit by the decision to make the passports abroad. Politicians accused Theresa May of ‘penny-pinching’ and ‘selling out’ on her Brexit vision.

The Prime Minister has declined to guarantee the passport deal will not be finalised over the Easter recess before Parliament gets a chance to debate it fully.

Questioned by Labour’s Liz Twist yesterday, Mrs May said the Home Office was following a ‘proper process’ which will ensure passport production gives ‘good value to the taxpayer’.

A team of Daily Mail staff go through all the coupons sent in by Daily Mail readers calling for the contract of the blue passports to be made by a British firm

Ministers have faced fury over the decision to award the contract for the travel documents to Franco-Dutch firm Gemalto. MPs fear the deal could be finalised while the Commons is in recess from tomorrow until April 16. De La Rue, the British company that makes the current burgundy passports, has days to lodge an appeal against the move, which puts up to 200 jobs at its Gateshead plant at risk.

Louisa Bull, of the Unite union, said up to 400 related businesses could be affected by the decision. Charles Jarrold, chief executive of the British Printing Industries Federation, called the move ‘bitterly disappointing’.

Tory peer Lord Naseby has tabled a written question in the Lords questioning whether the contract should go to Gemalto given that it is 26 per cent owned by the French government, which would profit from the deal. He told the Mail: ‘It is insensitive and penny-pinching to thrust on the British a French produced passport from a [part] state-owned company which does not have to make a profit.

‘I ask the Prime Minister, “please think again, if you reject the French passport you will be a hero to the British people”.’

Sacks of letters addressed to the Daily Mail calling for passports to be made in Britain at the offices

The Daily Mail’s petition demanding Britain’s post-Brexit blue passports be made in the UK raced past the 200,000 mark last night

Dozens more sacks stuffed with an estimated 10,000 letters are yet to be counted

The Home Office says the outsourcing move could save up to £120million. At a protest outside Parliament yesterday more MPs waded into the row and accused Mrs May of ‘selling out’ at a time when British industry needs bolstering ahead of Brexit.

Andrew Gwynne, Labour’s shadow communities and local government secretary, said: ‘It’s a sell-out because it’s selling out British jobs, it’s selling out on an image of Britain post-Brexit and it doesn’t save money in the long run so it’s a no-brainer, let’s keep these jobs.’