HOME Office chiefs were last night accused of “a national humiliation” after deciding FRANCE will make Britain’s new blue passports.

British company De La Rue is to be stripped of its long-standing contract to produce the nation’s new identity documents.

4 The Home Office sparked outrage by announcing new blue British passports will be made by a French company

Instead, the lucrative business will be handed over to French firm Gemalto, The Sun can reveal.

The security giant have won the tender to make the iconic items from 2019, in a deal worth £490million.

A total of three companies bid for the passport contract, with a German company joining De La Rue and Gemalto.

But the decision was the result of a ‘blind tender’ process, under which ministers were not allowed to know who had submitted the individual bids.

4 The current burgundy passport is manufactured by British firm De La Rue Credit: Alamy

Under strict civil service procurement rules, the government is also not able to discriminate by excluding other EU nations from bidding.

De La Rue produced its first passport for the UK Government in 1915, and hundreds of job losses are now feared.

The decision sparked uproar among Tory MPs last night, who called on the Home Secretary to step in.

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

4 Priti Patel called the move 'a disgraceful decision' and 'perverse' Credit: PA:Press Association

The prominent Brexit campaigner added: “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.”

Another former Cabinet minister, Maria Miller, whose constituency Basingstoke houses De La Rue’s HQ, is pushing ministers hard to reverse the decision.

4 Priti Patel urged Amber Rudd and the Government to re-think the decision Credit: EPA

None of the three companies bidding has been informed of the formal decision yet, and they can mount legal challenges to it.

But De La Rue are believed to have feared the worst, and issued a profit warning on Tuesday, sending its share price down 13 per cent.

Gemalto are likely to make the passport’s bodies abroad but all security aspects of the document – including personalised data chips – must be produced in the UK.

A Home Office spokeswoman said: “We are running a fair and open competition to ensure that the new contract delivers a high quality and secure product and offers the best value for money for customers.

"All passports will continue to be personalised with the holder’s details in the United Kingdom, meaning that no personal data will leave the UK.

“We do not require passports to be manufactured from the UK. A proportion of blank passport books are currently manufactured overseas, and there are no security or operational reasons why this would not continue.”

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Theresa May announced the return of the iconic dark blue passports in December with full fanfare.

It followed a year-long campaign by The Sun to scrap the burgundy model, adopted in 1988.

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