PASSPORT staff will strike on Monday in protest amid the continuing backlog chaos.

They say the piles of applications are growing because the government has failed to introduce long-term plans to deal with staff shortages caused by its cuts.

HM Passport Office has sacked 10 per cent of its workforce — more than 300 staff — and closed 22 offices across the country. Centres hit include London, Liverpool, Newport, Belfast, Durham and Glasgow.

A backlog of almost half a million applications built up, but in the Commons this month the number was revealed to have soared by 25,000 to 508,000 since the crisis was exposed in June.

Monday’s 24-hour strike by about 2,500 Passport Office workers will be in protest at staffing shortages that have left hundreds of thousands of would-be holidaymakers and travellers worrying if their passports will arrive in time for their journeys.

The Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) has held talks with Passport Office chief executive Paul Pugh and senior managers but said: “They are still failing to commit to work with the union to agree a long-term solution” to the problem.

The union says a staff recruitment drive has been launched — but is intended to replace only employees who leave in the future, not those shed through the government’s butchery of jobs.

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: “We are still a long way off getting a commitment from the agency that it will work with us to put the proper resources in place to ensure these backlogs do not reoccur year after year.”