Spain threatens Brexit deal over Gibraltar row

out of office, she replied: “What I would say is – don’t just listen to the politicians, listen to what business is saying.

“Business is saying we want a good deal with the EU and a good trading relationship with the EU.”

Mrs May stressed: “What we have agreed, unashamedly, puts our future economic success – and the livelihoods of working families up and down this country – first.”

She added that it delivered on Brexit voters’ demand to end unrestricted immigration from the Continent which let “EU nationals, regardless of the skills or experience they have to offer, jump the queue ahead of engineers from Sydney or software developers from Delhi”.

Jobs

The deal would deliver on the Brexit referendum by getting Britain out of the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice, and out of farming and fisheries regimes, and ended free movement and “vast” annual payments to the EU, she added.

But it would also maintain good trade links with Britain’s nearest trading partner, the European Union, and protect jobs while letting the UK strike new trade deals around the world.

Asked for her message to Tory Cabinet ministers urging her to go back to Brussels for a different deal, she indicated she could not contemplate renegotiating the withdrawal agreement.

But she also stressed it was not set in stone until the separate outline terms for future relations were also settled, which she would spend this week intensively focused on.

“Nothing is agreed until everything is agreed,” she added. SPAIN threatened to pull its support for the Brexit deal last night in a row over its impact on Gibraltar.

Spanish ministers warned they were prepared to cause trouble in the final stages of the “divorce” talks over the way the Rock was dealt with in the draft agreement.

Josep Borrell, the country’s foreign secretary, threatened “lastminute surprises” after claiming his government had been blindsided by late additions to the text.

He wants Gibraltar’s future to be dealt with separately by Madrid and London. He added: “What is being negotiated has a territorial scope that does not include Gibraltar. Until it is clarified in the withdrawal agreement we cannot give our backing.”

Spain claims sovereignty over Gibraltar, which is a British overseas territory. Downing Street said the proposals on Gibraltar in the deal will not be renegotiated.

Theresa May’s spokesman said: “We will get a deal that works for the whole UK family.”