Britain is getting a new passport colour after Brexit and people's minds are totally blown
Brexit has claimed another victim, and this time it's a rather surprising one—our passport's colour.
The UK government has announced that after the UK leaves the European Union, UK passports will be changing from "the standard burgundy colour" to a "blue and gold design."
The travel doc makeover—which the government says is "A move to symbolise or national identity"— will cost £500 million ($669 million). Money well spent? Errr....
"Leaving the EU gives us a unique opportunity to restore our national identity and forge a new path for ourselves in the world," Immigration Minister Brandon Lewis said in an official statement.
"That is why I am delighted to announce that the British passport will be returning to the iconic blue and gold design after we have left the European Union in 2019," he continued.
The blue cover, per the statement, is a return to the "original appearance" of the British passport and the colour blue was "first used in 1921." "It remained the colour of choice until the UK joined the EU and the burgundy common format colour was agreed and adopted," reads the statement.
Rupert Murdoch-owned newspaper The Sun claimed victory for the change. The Brexit-backing paper had been campaigning for it for 17 months. "I hope Sun readers will agree this is a clear visual step in regaining our sense of sovereignty and standing tall in the world as a proud, independent Britain once more," read an editorial.
The move isn't proving terribly popular on Twitter, with many wondering why the government is spending such a substantial amount of money on such a thing.
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Some said they'd rather have their current EU passports, with the "inbuilt bonus feature of visa-free travel to European countries."
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Great.
Topics Politics
Rachel Thompson is the Features Editor at Mashable. Rachel's second non-fiction book The Love Fix: Reclaiming Intimacy in a Disconnected World is out now, published by Penguin Random House in Jan. 2025. The Love Fix explores why dating feels so hard right now, why we experience difficult emotions in the realm of love, and how we can change our dating culture for the better.
A leading sex and dating writer in the UK, Rachel has written for GQ, The Guardian, The Sunday Times Style, The Telegraph, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Stylist, ELLE, The i Paper, Refinery29, and many more.
Rachel's first book Rough: How Violence Has Found Its Way Into the Bedroom And What We Can Do About It, a non-fiction investigation into sexual violence was published by Penguin Random House in 2021.
