The new British passports are to be made by a Franco-Dutch firm, rather than the current British firm.
The post-Brexit passports will return to its original blue and gold colour from October 2019, to be made by Gemalto (AMS: GTO) in a £490 million deal.
The chief executive of De La Rue (LON: DLAR), the British firm who lost out on the deal, said on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that he challenged Theresa May or the home secretary to “come to my factory and explain my dedicated workforce why they think this is a sensible decision to offshore the manufacture of a British icon”.
Martin Sutherland plans to appeal the decision, calling it unfair.
Following the news, shares in De La Rue closed six percent lower on Thursday.
Sutherland said it was not yet clear whether jobs at the factory would be affected. De la Rue employes over 600 employees at the site in Gateshead.
Theresa May announced the plans to change the passport colour back in February when she told the House of Commons: “It is right that from autumn 2019 we will issue new blue and gold passports, which have always been the UK’s colours of choice for our passports. It is absolutely right that after we leave the European Union we return to deciding the colour of passports that we want, not that the EU wants.”
Not everyone is pleased with the news that the British passports will be made by a Franco-Dutch firm.
“The blue passport saga is turning into a farce,” said Liberal Democrats’ Brexit spokesman, Tom Brake.
“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.”