Home Office video showing a ‘sample’ new blue British passport is mocked for featuring a youthful-looking woman – whose age is listed as 47
- Home Office posted a video showing off the new Blue passports on Twitter
- The blue passports will be sent out at the end of March after 30-year hiatus
- Sample document showed a women supposedly aged 47 but many pointed out that she looked much younger than her listed August 1973 birthdate
- Other eagle-eyed social media-users also spotted the travel document was listed as being issued in 2018, when red passports were still being issued
The key to looking young? Apparently, getting one of the new blue British passport helps.
Since the Home Office posted a video yesterday featuring a ‘sample’ post-Brexit travel document on its Twitter account, social media users have had a field day, pointing out that almost nothing about the id card adds up.
The ‘walk-through’ video, which has had 2.4million views already, shows the passport of a woman – believed to be fictional – called Angela Zoe Webster.
She is listed as having a birthdate of August 1973 – yet many have pointed out that the age doesn’t match the photo – or that the photo isn’t recent.
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The Home Office posted a video of a sample blue British passport on to its Twitter account yesterday but some social media users were distracted by the small print – namely how the lady in the photos was supposed to be 47 but looked much younger
Closer look: August 1973 would make the young woman in the photograph aged 47
The woman in the photographs, named as Angela Zoe Smith, appeared to be much younger than her listed age
All change: The blue passports will be sent out at the end of March – but leftover burgundy stock will be used as a priority to get rid of them
British travellers are advised to provide recent photographs or face not having their passport application approved.
The Home Office’s official Twitter account posted the video alongside the words: ‘Britons will once again be able to travel with a blue passport when the iconic colour returns for the first time in almost 30 years.’
However, many of those watching were distracted by the small print in the new blue sample passport, which will be sent out from the end of March.
The woman in the photographs, named as Angela Zoe Smith, appeared to be much younger than her listed age.
One Twitter user, @JonnElledge, posted one of the photos, writing: ‘They’ve made the birth date on that passport 1973. Cute. Except it now means that we’re expected to believe that this is a recent picture of a 47-year-old woman.’
@WadeyLady010 responded: ‘This 47-year-old woman looks old enough to be her mother…#justsaying’.
Home Secretary Priti Patel holding a blue passport, which will be issued for the first time in almost three decades from next month
However, others said it was ‘totally possible’ to look that young at 47.
@lfnand penned: ‘As a 45 year old woman I would like to think that photo is not far off.’
Others pointed out that the passport had other strange features on it, including an issue date of 2018, when Britain was still very much in the EU.
@faintmatthew spotted: ‘The issue date is 2018 – so pretty sure it is a bad fake.’
Boris Johnson unveiled the long-awaited blue passport on February 22nd.
The Prime Minister was pictured holding the new travel document on a flight to Newcastle Airport on the day Britain left the EU, in an image released by Downing Street.
The blue passports will be sent out at the end of March – but leftover burgundy stock will be used as a priority to get rid of them.
British passports were dark blue from the inception of the old design in 1920, until 1988 when they were changed to burgundy in line with most EU passports.