The passport validity shambles is the latest struggle in a post-Brexit world

Over the past couple of years I have reported on some strange inventions in the world of travel. Who could forget “amber plus”, a quarantine category concocted by UK ministers halfway in mid-July last year to block British holidaymakers travelling to France?

The official justification was concern about a variant on an Indian Ocean island 6,000 miles from Paris, but that excuse was rather weakened by the government allowing unhindered travel from the lovely isle in question, Reunion, so long as one avoided mainland France.

Nothing, though, prepared me for the passport shambles created by a combination of Brexit, incompetence and laziness.

In the story of the exercise in national self-harm that leaving the EU entails, travel deserves an entire chapter of its own. As British visitors to the European Union this summer will discover, we signed up for a return to roaming charges, long waits for admission and complicated passport rules. According to the Portuguese tourist board 99 per cent of all enquiries are currently about passport validity.

The European Commission could have been more diligent in writing its rules for “third country nationals”, as we have chosen to become. But after some formidably lengthy correspondence with the Department of Migration and Home Affairs in Brussels I established that the two rules for admission – passport issued less than 10 years ago on day of entry, expiry date at least three months away on day of exit – are independent of each other.

Yet airlines, holiday companies and the UK government are proclaiming “alternative facts” that have nothing to do with the actual rules. Partly it stems from the long-standing tradition of bottom-covering in government and industry: warning people of the worst possible case, so that if anyone comes a cropper they can be told, “Well, you were warned.”

Unfortunately, misinterpreting or misrepresenting the rules on this subject brings profound distress to families. Every day, people are losing holidays needlessly, while others are racing around the country on needless missions to get a premium passport because of the abundant fake passport news. In time I believe that airlines and holiday companies that wrecked people’s trips needlessly will be forced to pay out substantial compensation.

Far better, though, to get the travel industry to comply with the rules. Meanwhile, I asked the Civil Aviation Authority what action it could take action to prevent Ryanair from causing financial and economic harm to UK passengers. Instead, I was told about the legal redress a passenger wrongly denied boarding has.

The struggle continues.