Fanatical hook-handed Muslim cleric Hamza was jailed in 2006 for incitement to murder and is wanted in the US on terrorism charges.
The astonishing discovery was made when the passport was sent to Hamza, 53, at London’s top security Belmarsh Prison. It was then confiscated.
Last night senior Conservative MP Patrick Mercer said: “It is outrageous that the Home Secretary was not given an opportunity to scrutinise this whole sorry mess.”
And a Whitehall source admitted: “It looks very much like someone just signed this application off without thinking too much about what they were doing.
“A decision of this sort against this background is an embarrassment — it looks incompetent.
“When it was reported to the governor he said, ‘He is not having that’ and contacted the Identity and Passport Service. The passport was then returned to them.”
A spokesman for the IPS confirmed Hamza’s passport had been issued without any consultation with the Home Secretary — but insisted rules had not been breached.
Sir Andrew Green, of the independent think tank Migration Watch, fumed: “This is another example of mindless bureaucracy.”
The Government is currently awaiting the final go-ahead from the European Court to extradite Hamza — who is still a British citizen — to the US, although he still has time to appeal.
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