It was announced last month that De La Rue had won the contract to print the next generation passports with a 10-year contract worth £400m.

According to the Daily Mail, 3M is "furious that its bid was rejected" and is considering taking legal action over a potential conflict of interest surrounding the civil servant Gill Rider.

Rider, who is Cabinet Office director general of leadership and people strategy, directs the hiring of senior civil servants and hired two former colleagues to the Identity and Passport Service, according to the report. She also sat on the board of De La Rue until February this year, the paper said.

De La Rue maintained that while Rider sat on the board, she "did not participate in discussions about the bid".

The security printer announced to the Stock Exchange in February that Rider had stepped down from the board while the bid was in process. She was subsequently reappointed when the contract award was announced.

A spokesman for 3M told PrintWeek: "The Identity and Passport Service has advised us that De La Rue has been selected as the preferred bidder for the UK next generation ePassport.

"As the current incumbent, 3M Security Printing and Systems has been in discussion with the IPS in order to gain a full understanding of their decision. 3M has nothing further to say while those discussions are ongoing."

De La Rue has a long history of passport production having produced its first passport in 1915. Its Identity Systems division has now implemented more than 50 national schemes across the globe.