A former labourer says he is still determined to overcome red tape in order to get a British passport.

As previously reported, Michael Burridge cannot get the official documents required by the Identity and Passport Office to prove he is British, saying most have been lost.

The 56-year-old, of Rule Court, St George’s Avenue, Sheerness, was born in a British military hospital in Germany.

He has contacted Sheppey MP Derek Wyatt, who suggested contacting the General Record Office (GRO) in Edinburgh because Mr Burridge’s father was Scottish.

Mr Burridge, who has not worked since 1990 because of injury, said: “I have got my birth certificate which says my father, Alfred, was Scottish and a member of the Royal Scots Fusiliers.

“He has been dead for 30 years and my mother has been dead for 41 years and all their documents have been lost in the midst of time.”

The passport office needs his father’s birth certificate and marriage certificate and Mr Burridge says he has attempted ringing the GRO but it has been unable to help.

He added: “The trouble is that I know who I am but cannot prove that to the passport office even though I have a strong Scottish accent.

“Since the story appeared in the Times Guardian I have written to the army in Glasgow to try and get my father’s birth certificate but I have not heard back from them despite trying several times.

“I am thinking of writing to the Home Secretary but I expect she has other things on her mind such as oil prices.

“The only other alternative is for me to physically go to the records’ office in Edinburgh but I cannot afford to get there.”

The Passport office says it does not comment on individual cases and can issue passports only to those who hold British nationality, which is a matter of law applied to facts of birth and descent.

The question of whether an applicant is entitled to British nationality is determined by the British Nationality Act 1948, the office stated.