BORIS Johnson’s Conservative government has signalled it is keen to continue selling off the UK’s assets as the Passport Office became the latest agency at risk of privatisation.

The UK Government has already announced its intention to sell off Channel 4, claiming the broadcaster should be more competitive against the likes of Netflix.

Now, just a few weeks on, the Prime Minister has threatened to sell off the Passport Office to the private sector if it does not provide better value for money, claiming this could help the cost of living situation.

Speaking at a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday afternoon, Johnson complained that the high cost of Passport Office services is affecting families ahead of the summer holidays.

A Government source told the BBC that costs were more expensive due to delays in the system, saying this was making already tight household budgets worse.

They said the Passport Office issue “goes to the heart of the cost of living” crisis.

The Home Office has recently been urging people not to put off completing their passport applications, as significant processing issues have resulted in lengthy delays.

With millions of people holding off on renewing their passports during the pandemic, there has been a huge surge in submissions since restrictions eased.

The problem has been worsened by new post-Brexit travel rules, which mean UK citizens must have at least three months validity on their passport if they want to go to the EU – plus their passport must have been issued in the last 10 years.

Now the Passport Office says people should allow up to 10 weeks for their application to go through.

If the identification is needed sooner, people can pay for an urgent renewal as part of more expensive premium services offered by the Passport Office.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Downing Street said the Prime Minister would sign off on new childcare support in England when he chaired a “domestic and economic strategy committee” in the “coming weeks”.

But Number 10 suggested no new money would be provided in the coming months to ease the pain after Chancellor Rishi Sunak warned against rising public debt or inflation.

Ministers discussed “a number of ideas” at Cabinet on Tuesday after Johnson asked them to bring “innovative” schemes to tackle soaring costs.

He accepted people were facing “real pressures” but blamed external factors such as Russian president Vladimir Putin’s “crazed malevolence” in Ukraine and lockdowns in China.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said Johnson told ministers “there was more to do, including in areas like childcare, to further ease pressures for those who need it most and to get even more people into high-skilled, high-wage jobs”.

He declined to give more details about the plan, saying it was “live policy work taking place and I’m sure we’ll have more to say in the future”.

Sunak “underlined the importance of not feeding in to further inflation rises and emphasised that the UK is currently spending £80 billion servicing our debt”, No 10 said.

This meant no new money to alleviate the crisis until a further financial announcement from the Chancellor, Johnson’s spokesman suggested.