Fury at Gibraltar ‘colony’ ruling

The european Parliament provoked anger yesterday by voting to recognise Gibraltar as ‘a colony’ of Britain.

The centuries-old dispute over the Rock, a contentious issue throughout Brexit talks, flared up again as Spain was accused of ‘bullying’ to pass the legislation.

Shortly after the vote the eU Commission stoked tensions further by saying it found the language ‘acceptable’. Spain’s european affairs minister also hailed the vote’s ‘very political and symbolic nature’.

But Downing Street said the language was ‘completely inappropriate’. A spokesman said: ‘Gibraltar is a full part of the UK family. This will not change due to our exit from the eU.’

Gibraltar has been British since 1713. The vote was final and means the word ‘colony’ will now enter into european law. Gibraltar’s chief minister Fabian Picardo called the word ‘provocative and pejorative’ and accused Madrid of trying to ‘bully’ the people of the British Overseas Territory.

In a statement Gibraltar’s government said: ‘extreme pressure exerted by Spain and the bullying tactics of Spanish MePs, on purely nationalistic grounds, has led to the acceptance of the “colony” language in relation to Gibraltar.’

MePs were voting to accept Brussels proposals to allow British nationals visa-free travel throughout the eU after Brexit and vice-versa – even in the event of no Deal. A reference to Gibraltar being a ‘colony of the British Crown’ was inserted as a footnote at Spain’s behest.

Labour MeP Claude Moraes, chairman of the european Parliament’s justice committee, suggested Britain could take legal action, calling Spain’s move ‘a glaring legal deceit’.