Britain prepared to fight to keep Gibraltar, says minister

LONDON — Britain is ready to go to war to defend the sovereignty of Gibraltar, the country’s Defence Secretary has suggested, as he vowed to go “all the way” to protect the territory.

Sir Michael Fallon said Britain was going to “look after” Gibraltar, adding that the people of the peninsula had made it “very clear” that they did not want to live under Spanish rule.

It came as Lord Howard, the former Conservative leader, said Prime Minister Theresa May would show the “same resolve” over Gibraltar as Margaret Thatcher did over the Falklands.

May on Sunday told Fabian Picardo, Chief Minister of Gibraltar, that Britain would never allow Spain to take over the Rock against the will of its people.

A Downing Street spokesman said: “The prime minister said we will never enter into arrangements under which the people of Gibraltar would pass under the sovereignty of another state against their freely and democratically expressed wishes, nor will we ever enter into a process of sovereignty negotiations with which Gibraltar is not content.”

The controversy erupted after the European Union put the future of Gibraltar at stake in Brexit negotiations by effectively backing Spain in its long-running dispute with the UK over the British overseas territory.

The EU’s draft Brexit negotiating guidelines appear to hand Spain an effective veto over whether an eventual deal will apply to Gibraltar, prompting fury in the UK, where ministers described the move as “utterly unacceptable.” Fallon said on the BBC: “The sovereignty of Gibraltar cannot be changed without the agreement of the people of Gibraltar and they have made it very clear they do not want to live under Spanish rule.”