Conservative MEP Charles Tannock has confirmed he obtained the Irish passport because his grandmother was born in Dublin. Tannock told the Irish Times on Monday he was a “pretty angry pro-European Tory” who was strongly opposed to Brexit and had sought out a European passport – in his case an Irish one. The Tory MEP also criticised his party for being mired in “arrogance and hubris … the petty nationalism, the triumphalism”. In April the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFA) in Dublin revealed there had been a 68% rise in Irish passport applications from the UK in the first quarter of 2017. Mulhall said the spike was due to people trying to “safeguard their position for the future” in the light of Brexit.

Source: The Guardian September 04, 2017 11:59 UTC