Passport problems keep May in check

Like many of the people waiting desperately for travel documents right now the passport crisis is not going to go away this summer.

Inevitably passport applications increase at this time of year as people get ready for their summer holidays.

But this year the jump has been bigger than normal somewhere in the region of 300,000 extra applications.

The official explanation is that with the economy picking up everyone has decided to take a foreign holiday this year.

An alternative theory would trace the problems to the fact the Passport Office has taken over responsibility for processing applications from British citizens based overseas for the first time at the same time as staff numbers have been squeezed.

Theresa May was dragged back to the Commons last week by Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper to explain.

A poll last week showed half the electorate thinks Ed Miliband should be canned by the Labour party. In that unlikely event the party would most likely turn to Cooper and in her jousts with the Home Secretary she’s showed why.

The passport chaos is something of an open goal for Labour but unlike many of her frontbench colleagues – and her countrymen out in Brazil – Cooper scores.

Shadow education secretary Tristram Hunt’s recent attempts to get one over Michael Gove after a succession of scandals have given the impression that to go with rugged good looks apparently hewn from granite, he has little but rocks in his head.

May who appeared to have dressed for the occasion, sporting an outfit covered in zips and making her look like a suitcase endured a torrid time at Cooper’s hands.

She finally apologised for the chaos, her department was compared to something out of Monty Python and Sir Gerald Kaufman described her as “useless and arrogant” and “the worst Home Secretary of my 44 years in the House of Commons”.

Presumably that’s only because Sir Gerald never got a shot at that particular title given he was part of the unelectable shadow cabinets of the Kinnock years.

Wave upon wave of Labour MPs attempted to outdo each other with sob stories of constituents set to miss out on holidays.

Of course all the cases raised referred to folk missing out on romantic breaks or long awaited family fun. No-one was being denied a disappointing day trip to Belgium or being held back from an unnecessary overseas business conference involving an illicit liaison triggering a divorce.

Cooper though seemed to have the best of those tales with the man who was set to miss his brother’s wedding in Greece though anyone who has sat through Mamma Mia will know that chap has actually been spared and the family who had to leave a child with its grandparents because the boy’s passport hadn’t come through.

Though perhaps that story was best referred to the Children’s Minister as it’s a special sort of parent that tells one of their offspring he’s staying at home while the rest skip off to the sun.

An exasperated Home Secretary claimed the problem was in hand while revealing that where previously 97% of applications were being dealt with in the required three week period that figure was now down to 89%.

She pointed out that the vast majority of cases were going smoothly. But it still leaves tens of thousands of ordinary folk sweating on whether they’ll be sweating by the pool this summer.

And at the end of the week it emerged that emergency travel documents being issued to plug the gap won’t be accepted in popular spots like Turkey, Australia and the USA.

The backlog has been brewing for some time yet only now, just as the Home Secretary has hit the front in the race to succeed David Cameron, has it hit the headlines.

While people wait to see whether they should order a taxi to the airport someone somewhere is keen to ensure May’s leadership ambitions are kept waiting in the departure lounge.