TORY Brexiteers are furious over the Home Office’s decision to hire a French company to make Britain’s new blue passport.

The current burgundy passport, made in the UK by De La Rue, will be phased out after Brexit and is to be replaced by a seemingly more traditional blacky-blue coloured passport, made by French-Dutch firm Gemalto.

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Former Cabinet minister Priti Patel dubbed it “a disgraceful decision” and “a national humiliation”.

The prominent Brexiteer told a daily newspaper: “This should be a moment that we should be celebrating. The return of our iconic blue passport will re-establish the British identity. But to be putting the job in the hands of the French is simply astonishing. It is a national humiliation.

“I would urge Amber Rudd and the Government to look again at the powers they have to see what they can do.”

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The Home Office said that under EU procurement rules, which they still have to abide by, the Government had no choice but to open the bidding process to European firms.

And that by giving the job to a company on the continent they’d be saving the taxpayer millions.

Which led to Leave-backing Tories and Ukippers venting to the media about meddling from Brussels.

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Culture Secretary Matthew Hancock told the BBC’s Today programme: “As it happens, one of the advantages of leaving the European Union is that we’ll be able to have more control over our own procurement rules.”

But that may not be entirely accurate. It seems the decision was entirely Britain’s.

And it’s a decision which could see hundreds of jobs lost at a firm that first produced a British passport back in 1915. However, there’s very little chance of a change.

Even after Brexit, the rules forcing the Home Office to consider bids from non-British firms will likely still apply in some shape.

If the UK does secure a trade deal with Brussels, then it’s probable that it will have to sick to EU procurement and competition rules.

And even if the UK doesn’t secure a deal, and crashes out in a hard Brexit, then it would still have to put passports out for an international tender, under World Trade Organisation rules.

It seems that the only way to get round it is to do what the French do and have passports made in-house by a government agency, and therefore not subject to EU or WTO procurement rules.

A spokeswoman for the Home Office defended their decision: “The chosen company demonstrated that they will be best able to meet the needs of our passport service with a high-quality and secure product at the best value for money for our customers and the taxpayer.”

The Tories have made blue passports a totemic part of Brexit.

“The UK passport is an expression of our independence and sovereignty – symbolising our citizenship of a proud, great nation. That’s why we have announced that the iconic #bluepassport will return after we leave the European Union in 2019,” May tweeted last December.

There was some gloating from Remain supporters over the row. Writer David Schneider tweeted: “I still think the best idea is to let people choose their own colour: Maroon passport = you can continue to travel freely, work and live across the EU. Blue passport = you can’t do any of that but you have a blue passport.

“Everyone’s happy!”