Hello, I'm Simon Calder, welcoming you to my independent travel podcast, bringing you the latest news on travelling, whether you're just dreaming of a great escape or away and having the time of your life. Of course, many people, possibly millions, are having nightmares about their great escape because their passport does not

appear to be valid. I'll come on to that particular form of words a little bit later. Yes,

multiple reports today that people are facing weights of many, many weeks, even for very simple renewals of their

passport applications and as a result, they are missing their holidays. This is desperately,

desperately sad and absolutely predictable. If I can take you back two years, we were in the first lockdown. I calculated that the number of passports that were not, that had expired since lockdown began, at that stage, and we're just talking a couple of months into the pandemic, had risen to nearly one million. And so,

I wrote to the passport office, to the home office, which looks after it, and said, what

arrangements will the UK passport office make to accelerate the renewal of passports and the

issue of new ones to those who need them after the expected surge in demand.

Well, that question wasn't directly answered. Instead, they told me we are prioritising those

who need our services most, especially applications for compassionate reasons. We encourage those

who can to apply at a later date,

thus storing up problems for the future. Now, given that the government has been absolutely

in control of the travel restrictions, you would fondly imagine that the Home Office would be thinking,

oh, OK, we're going to lift all those restrictions, therefore there's going to be a surge in the

number of passports, therefore we have to be absolutely fully staffed up with the systems in place

in order to cope with that. Well, according to Ben Bradshaw, a senior Labour MP, former cabinet

minister, currently a member of the Transport Select Committee, that hasn't been happening.

He said, he told me, yet again, the Home Office and Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, of course,

have been asleep on the job. Anyone could have predicted that after two years of travel restrictions,

there'd be a big surge in passport renewals and applications.

Well, certainly that was, I claim to be first mover on that one, Ben,

but you'll be the judge of that.

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