Warnings over massive passport delays causing millions of ruined summer holidays this year

Don't leave it to the last minute

British holidaymakers have been warned about getting their passport applications done "as soon as possible" to get ahead of enormous wait times. As summer fast approaches - and with it the first real chance at a summer holiday since covid began - ministers have warned that five million Brits delayed renewing their passports because of the pandemic, reports the Mail Online. Politicians have locked horns with the passport office, which officials say is in "absolute shambles" and is routinely missing the 10-week processing target. https://twitter.com/UK_GregoryJ/status/1517550466414137345 The passport office claims that Brits delaying their applications has put more strain on the system - but MPs are not having it and have declared such instances as "foreseeable." [caption id="attachment_331993" align="alignnone" width="2048"] Via UnSplash[/caption] "All our constituents are having to cancel holidays, miss funerals, rearrange visits, with even a new ten-week target routinely being failed," said SNP's home affairs spokesman Stuart McDonald. "What will be done to avoid this predictable mess getting worse? And can we be assured that the ten-week target will not be lengthened further as we approach the summer?" Foster detailed how usually the government see seven million applications in a year - while last month alone, they saw 10 million. https://twitter.com/davesumnersmith/status/1518832247960481792 In response, an HM Passport Office spokesman said: "We urge people who need a new passport to apply for one as soon as possible and we do offer urgent services for applicants who need a passport more quickly." According to The Independent, Labour MP Ben Bradshaw said: “Yet again, the Home Office and Priti Patel have been asleep on the job. https://twitter.com/Steve___Watkins/status/1518865962124075009 “Anyone could have predicted that after two years of travel restrictions there would be big surge in passport renewals and applications. “Yet there seems to have been no planning for this, meaning thousands of families who have been looking forward to seeing loved ones again or having a holiday are having those hopes dashed.”

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