Whether manufacturing drones or printing British blue passports, the defence contractor is flying high in a geopolitically risky climate

For a “ferocious remainer”, Alex Cresswell is remarkably proud of his blue passport. For some, the dark rectangle on his office table is a sad symbol of Britain’s departure from the EU. But while the Thales UK boss describes watching the Brexit squabbles in Westminster from his decade-long posting at the company’s Paris HQ as “excruciating”, he smiles at the travel document.

His aerospace-to-defence-and-security business is four years into a Home Office contract to produce the passports, after Gemalto (acquired by Thales) undercut the furious incumbent, De La Rue, to win the contract.