UK to get traditional navy blue passports back after Brexit in bid to 'restore our national identity'

Navy blue passports will be issued once more after Britain leaves the EU in 2019, the Home Office has confirmed.

Immigration Minister Brandon Lewis described the return to the traditional blue passport as a “unique opportunity to restore our national identity”.

The burgundy shade, which was introduced in 1988 under EU requirements, will be gradually phased out from October 2019 onwards.

Demands for a return to the blue passport were a major part of the Leave campaign ahead of the EU referendum in June 2016.

Mr Lewis said: "One of the most iconic things about being British is having a British passport.

“So from the first day we leave, new passports will look different and within months they will be very different, because they will be dark blue again.

"We wanted to return to the dark blue passport because we recognise the strong attachment people had to it."

Burgundy passports will still be issued for the first six months after Britain leaves the EU on March 29, 2019, but they will no longer feature any EU markings.

The dark blue version will then come into production in October when the passport is scheduled to be redesigned, as happens every five years.

Conservative MP Andrew Rosindell said in April that the burgundy passport had been a source of national “humiliation”.

Following Mr Lewis' announcement, another Conservative MP Michael Fabricant told the Times: "Our passports are iconic of our national identity. They were going to have to be updated anyway with new security enhancements and to remove 'Citizen of the European Union' after Brexit.

"I am delighted that we will be reverting to our blue colour."

A £490 million contract to redesign and produce a new version of the document was announced earlier this year.

Mr Lewis said the new passport will be the "most high-tech and secure we have ever seen", making it more resistant to fraud and forgery.

Among the new design features will be a new picture page made of a "super-strength plastic polycarbonate material that will be more difficult to alter", the Home Office said.

British passport holders do not need to do anything until their renewal date.