'The Brexiters have no more idea in private than they do in public about what they are doing. Predictions based upon their concealed intent project on to them a competence they simply don’t possess.'

The blue passports were championed by Brexiteers as a symbol of the UK's split from the EU.

De La Rue said on Tuesday 171 jobs were at risk at its Gateshead plant, more than a year after the banknote and passport printer lost a 400 million pound contract to make UK passports in the traditional blue colour.

De La Rue boss quits as company struggles after losing out to Franco-Dutch business Gemalto.

As Prime Minister Boris Johnson prepares to depart Downing Street, tossed from office by his own party, his legacy — the opening lines of his eventual obituary — will call him the man who “got Brexit done.” / So how is that going? What can be said about the post-Brexit Britain that Johnson is leaving behind?