Top aide to Theresa May slams £500m post-Brexit passport claim as 'fake news'

The claim was shared tens of thousands of times on Twitter. One of Theresa May's top aides has slammed the 'fake news' after it emerged
EPA
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Theresa May’s communications director has hit out at “fake news” after a claim about the cost of post-Brexit blue passports went viral on Twitter.

Robbie Gibb has said deliberately misrepresenting government policies “harms our democracy” after a claim they will cost £500m was shared tens of thousands of times on the social media site.

Former Dragon’s Den panellist James Caan had shared the figure before later withdrawing it saying: “having researched the cost of providing new passports it appears the £500m for the colour is fake news”.

The redesign, which happens routinely every five years, will come as part of a £490m contract that includes printing and assembling passports and runs for 11 and a half years.

But Mr Caan initially claimed it would cost £500m just to change the colour.

He tweeted: "A country that would spend £500m to change the colour of a passport while children sleep on the streets is a country whose priorities are wholly out of whack."

The post, which had been shared more than 27,000 times by Saturday evening, prompted Home Office minister Brandon Lewis to reply: "This is factually wrong. The new passport will not cost the taxpayer any extra, will you correct this misinformation? Huge thx".

How British passports will look after Brexit
PA

The row came after Michael Gove, the Environment Secretary, hit out at social media user who wrongly claimed last month that MPs voted against treating animals as sentient beings.

The new design, which will no longer include the EU insignia, will replace the EU-style burgundy cover that has been a feature of the UK passport since the 1980s.

It will be phased in after the UK leaves the EU on March 29 2019.

Burgundy passports will continue to be issued, although without the EU markings, until the current supplier's contract expires in October 2019.

Blue was first used for the cover of the British passport in 1921, but the design changed in 1988 after the UK joined the European Economic Community and burgundy was chosen as the common colour.

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.

The Government is facing demands from arch-Brexiteer Tory MPs Jacob Rees Mogg and Andrew Bridgen to ensure the new passports are manufactured in Britain.

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