The EU is in danger of wresting away control of Gibraltar by stealth

THE strategic importance of the Strait of Gibraltar cannot be underestimated. It is one of the most important shipping routes in the world. From its Rock, one can look southwards both towards Jebel Musa in Morocco and towards the Spanish exclave of Ceuta, which has been in Portuguese and then Spanish hands for more than six centuries.

Gibraltar, though, has – quite uniquely – been under British rule for more than three centuries. How that happened is a good example of unexpected consequences.

At the start of the 18th century, Britain supported a claimant to the Spanish throne who, with British help, used Gibraltar as a base from which to attempt to win Spain in competition with a French rival. He went off to become Holy Roman Emperor instead (not a bad alternative) and Britain only then decided to hold on to the Rock. It proved to be a valuable asset. A line of British bases was eventually created from Gibraltar through Malta and Cyprus to the Suez Canal, which was of enormous strategic and commercial value. Bits of that defensive line still exist: the RAF base in Gibraltar is matched by the two British bases in Cyprus which, like the Rock, remain sovereign British territory, and are proving their worth in the bitter conflicts in the Middle East. It is certainly not in the interests of Nato for the British hold on these bases to be weakened.

Yet that could very well happen if European Union and Spanish efforts go their way. As talks over the post-Brexit border deal with Spain resumed yesterday, long-standing plans to make its airport into a point of access for travellers to southern Spain – becoming part of the EU’s Schengen