A British firm that lost its bid to continue making UK passports after Brexit announced today it would not appeal the government's controversial decision to choose a Franco-Dutch company instead.
De La Rue, which holds the current 10-year contract expiring in July 2019, said it had reached the decision after considering "all options" and vowed to "assist with transition to the new supplier".
The government has indicated it will hand the 490 million pounds (562 million euros, $695 million) contract to design and produce new blue-coloured passports to Gemalto, which is headquartered in Amsterdam and listed on the French and Dutch stock exchanges.
Officials claim the selection will save 120 million pounds during the lifetime of the 11-and-a-half-year contract.
But picking a foreign firm over a UK manufacturer has provoked an outcry in Britain, with politicians and the country's pro-Brexit newspapers decrying the decision.
A petition run by the Daily Mail to have the future passports made in Britain has topped 330,000 signatures.
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Britain's interior ministry said earlier this month that it had extended the bidding process by two weeks amid the backlash and following a request from De La Rue.
However, a spokesman made clear at the time Gemalto remained the preferred choice.
The ministry made no immediate comment on De La Rue's announcement.
The return of blue British passports in place of burgundy-coloured ones synonymous with the European Union was hailed as a symbolic reclamation of sovereignty for those backing Britain's exit from the bloc.
UK passports had dark blue covers from 1921, but Britain switched to burgundy from 1988, in common with other passports of what was then the European Community.
Brexit supporters have said it would be a "national humiliation" if they were now made in the EU.
Britain is set to leave the bloc next March, while the new passport production contract begins in October 2019.
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