AN AIRPORT passenger says he had his passport taken away by immigration officers because he was wearing a ‘Bollocks to Brexit’ badge.

Eddie Brinsmead-Stockham said he was stopped by an ‘abrupt’ Home Office official after returning from a golf trip to Portugal through Gatwick Airport’s North Terminal on Monday and told to remove his badge.

The ‘proud Remainer’, 65, said: ‘When I asked him why, he said, “Well, I find it offensive — take it off and follow me”. The officer was English and quite abrupt.’

After refusing, he said he was led to a holding area ‘on the wrong side of immigration’ and had his passport taken away for ten minutes before another official let him leave.

Mr Brinsmead-Stockham, from Kingston upon Thames, south-west London, called it ‘an abuse of power’ and complained to the Home Office. ‘The word has been trialled in the courts as not a swear word,’ he said, adding that ‘more vulnerable’ people ‘would be frightened’.

The Home Office said it was investigating.