A Home Office minister has suggested UK travellers can have any colour passport they wish post-Brexit by simply choosing a cover for it.

Baroness Williams of Trafford confirmed at Lords question time that post-Brexit blue UK passports will be introduced from late 2019. But she told those concerned about losing the old burgundy version simply had to choose a cover that allows  “people (t0) have any colour passport that they wish because they just need to buy a passport cover”.  Lady Williams said. “I’ve looked at different coloured passports. There are some rather nice yellow ones and there’s one with a picture of SpongeBob SquarePants on it.”

There are 793 members of the UK Upper Chamber compared with 100 in the US equivalent – that’s nearly 40 times as many per head of population . However, if ever there was a proof that size does not mean better performance, this is it. The Lords is bloated, expensive, pompous and senile.

If, as Baroness Williams asserts on behalf of the government, that you can have any coloured passport by simply buying a cover, then by what perverse and twisted logic was  it necessary to spend a reported £490m on a new blue version?

For the odd few cranks (probably about the same number who might buy a SongeBob cover?) who identified the colour burgundy as a ‘humiliation’ and the old blue one as representing a ‘national identity’, they could be equally satisfied by getting a blue cover from Tesco for £4.90 instead

Who cares what colour the passport is ? It is this sort of out of touch, gesture driven, trashing of tax payers money that anger citizens. Given we have a government readying the populace to announce a false EU exit because of the insolubility of the Irish problem,  it’s simply astounding that this would be anywhere on any priority list of things to do re Brexit.

Simply breath-taking stupidity which insults voters intelligence.