UK PASSPORTS ARE set to become blue after Brexit, and the Sun has described it as a “stunning victory” for the newspaper.
In what the UK Home Office called a “move to symbolise our national identity” the cover will change from the burgundy colour it currently is.
Immigration Minister Brandon Lewis said that leaving the EU would help Britain to “forge a new path for ourselves in the world” and this blue and gold-designed passport would be a part of that.
In its story announcing the news, The Sun said that the UK government had agreed to its demands to change the current design “enforced on the nation from 1988″.
It also said that people will be able to apply for the “iconic” passports that were “once famous across the globe” before their own expires.
From March 2019, the UK will still issue burgundy passports for a limited time, before switching to the dark blue ones.
Those blue passports were first issued in 1921, before EU passports were synchronised in colour in the 1980s.
The Home Office also said that the new passport will be “one of the most secure travel documents in the world, with a raft of new and updated security features and technologies to protect against fraud and forgery”.
Earlier this week, Prime Minister Theresa May gave her backing to a legislative compromise allowing Brexit to be delayed, avoiding another parliamentary defeat while promising that pushing back the departure date would only happen in “exceptional circumstances”.
The comments came as the European Commission said that it wants a post-Brexit transition period, during which Britain must continue to obey EU rules, to finish at the end of 2020.
Chief EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier said that “all EU policies will still apply” during the transition to a new relationship between London and Brussels following Britain’s exit from the union.
With reporting from AFP
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