Nia Griffith MP has spoken up in parliament about the recent chaos in the passport office. During a debate demanded by Labour MPs on passport delays, MPs quoted case after case of people who had applied in good time and had phoned up repeatedly but to no avail, and who had even been left having to cancel flights and family holidays.

Commenting about the situation, Nia Griffith MP said:

“What is utterly disgraceful is that weekly updates from the passport office meant that Ministers at the Home Office knew about backlog building up right back in January and yet the Home Secretary and immigration minister did nothing about it, not until the backlog built up to 350,000 and the holiday season was already upon us. Like many MPs, I have been contacted by constituents in really desperate circumstances and even the MP hotlines are at saturation point. People who have applied in good time have had to pay additional fast track fees and travel hundreds of miles to pick up passports, and some have even had to cancel their holidays – and yet not so much as a whisper of apology from the Home Secretary or her minister. They knew months ago and yet failed to act either through incompetence or sheer indifference.”