The van, which was en-route to London to deliver the passports and vignettes (blank stickers for visa stamps), reportedly stopped at a newsagent in Chadderton at 6.40am where the 48-year old driver got out to buy a newspaper and a snack.

A spokesman for Greater Manchester Police said: "A man from Oldham was arrested this morning on suspicion of conspiracy to commit robbery and is currently in police custody."

It is thought the deliveryman in custody had originally told police that a man had opened the passenger-side door and pushed his head into the dashboard before the van was driven off. He said the robber had driven the van a short distance, jumped out and escaped.

The white Citroen transit van was carrying 24 brown cardboard boxes, not all of which were taken.

Around 3,000 passports were thought to have been stolen, although insiders at Entrust – a digital security firm involved in passport manufacturing – said using the passports would be extremely difficult.

The Foreign Office said the stolen passports were rendered unusable by new security features as they contain a chip that replicates the data printed on the document.

Oldham-based printing company 3M Security Printing and Systems, which had produced the passports, declined to comment on the development.