The Emerald Isle is starting to look more attractive to Britons with Irish ancestory as a no-deal Brexit looms

The number of British residents applying for Irish passports has nearly doubled since the EU referendum as people secure the right to move and work freely in the bloc after Brexit.

Details of the surge came as the immigration minister warned that Britons travelling in Europe could face long delays in airport queues if there is a no-deal Brexit.

People with Irish parents or grandparents are entitled to apply for an Irish passport. The country’s embassy in London received 44,900 applications from January to June, putting this year on course to be the busiest so far of the post-Brexit rush, official figures released yesterday showed.

In total 80,752 applied last year, up from about 46,000 in 2015, the year before the Brexit vote. The number