'Iconic' Blue British Passport To Return After Brexit

                                    

British passports will change from burgundy to blue after Britain leaves the EU, the Home Office has said.

Immigration Minister Brandon Lewis said he was delighted to return to the "iconic" blue and gold design which came into use almost 100 years ago.

The new passports will be issued to those renewing or applying for a passport from October 2019.
Burgundy passports were first issued in 1988. The EU has never compelled the UK to change the colour of its passport.
Former UKIP leader Nigel Farage responded to the announcement by tweeting "Happy Brexmas!"
He added: "In the 2016 referendum, we wanted our passports back. Now we've got them back!"
But Labour MP Mary Creagh tweeted: "No-one under 45 will have owned a blue passport, and most will think they're not worth £50 billion and crashing the economy."
Mr Lewis told BBC Radio 4's Today programme he knew many Remain voters who still had an "attachment" and "speak fondly" of the blue passport.

According to the Passport Index, 76 countries have blue passports, including a number of former colonial and Commonwealth countries, such as Australia, the United States, Canada, India and Hong Kong.

Several Caribbean countries also have blue passports, including Jamaica, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados and St Vincent and the Grenadines.
In Europe, people from Iceland and Bosnia and Herzegovina both carry blue passports, while it is also a popular colour in central and south America - Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Uruguay and Venezuela are among those that have them.
Others include Israel, Iraq, Syria and North Korea.
Stig Abell, editor of the Times Literary Supplement, tweeted: "I've just spent the last 10 minutes screaming 'Take that you burgundy symbol of EU oppression' at my passport.
"It just stares insolently back, as if it is an inanimate and merely functional object and its colour doesn't matter."
The Home Office said there was no need for British passport holders to do anything ahead of their current passport renewal date, adding that the changes would be introduced in phases.
When the UK leaves the EU in March 2019, burgundy passports will continue to be issued but with no reference to the European Union.
The blue passports will be issued later the same year, after a new contract for their production is negotiated.
"Leaving the EU gives us a unique opportunity to restore our national identity and forge a new path for ourselves in the world", Mr Lewis said.

Source: BBC