JAMES Gray North Wiltshire MP has written to Amber Rudd questioning the decision to award the contract for the new UK passport to a French manufacturer.

Mr Gray said: “The UK Government have a responsibility to protect British jobs and promote innovative and pioneering British businesses, particularly during this uncertain period of exiting the EU.

“The British passport is a symbol of national pride and British identity.

“It is a cruel irony for the staff of previous contract holders De La Rue, who have a base in the neighbouring county of Somerset, that the new British passport will not be made by a British company.

“I hope that Ministers will reflect on the fact they have awarded one of the most prized government contracts to a French company when British firms are expressly prohibited from bidding to manufacture passports in those markets.

“It seems to me that this decision is ill thought out, and at odds with the Government’s purported aims to champion British business at home and abroad.

“It sends a confused message and demonstrates to the public that it has its priorities wrong at a time of huge uncertainty for the country.”