Brexit driving rise in multiple passport use

THE number of people with multiple passports in England and Wales has doubled in a decade, with the rise thought to be partly down to Brexit.

There was a five-fold increase in people born in the UK holding both British and European Union passports, the analysis of Census 2021 figures showed.

While the change has been partly driven by migration, with more people moving to the UK from the EU, it is also thought more people have taken up additional passports after Brexit, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.

In 2021, 1.26 million residents of England and Wales held multiple passports (2.1%), up from 612,000 (1.1%) in 2011. The majority - 84.4%, or 50.3 million - held only one passport in 2021.