Spain ‘uneasy’ over Wessexes’ Gibraltar trip

THE SPANISH government is protesting against the Wessexes’ visit to Gibraltar next week as the royals continue their tour of the Commonwealth.

Madrid still claims the territory as part of Spain and its future border arrangements are currently the subject of talks between Britain and the European Union.

Spanish diplomatic sources said the country’s Foreign Ministry had “expressed its unease” at the visit, which Spain believes “is not appropriate” against the backdrop of ongoing negotiations for a UK-EU framework on

Gibraltar’s post-brexit relations with the Rock.

The diplomatic tension means the arrival of Prince Edward and his wife, Sophie, in Gibraltar next week will add to the series of controversial Commonwealth visits this year, after April’s tour of the Caribbean by the Earl and Countess of Wessex was hit by anticolonial protests and the Grenada leg was dropped.

Previously, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s tour of Belize, Jamaica and the Bahamas was beset by PR gaffes as the royal couple were photographed touching hands with Jamaicans on the other side of a wire fence and parading atop a Land Rover amid a debate over the legacy of slavery.

The Earl and Countess are due to stay in Gibraltar from June 7 until June 9 to mark Queen Elizabeth II’S Platinum Jubilee. The visit will include a special Queen’s Birthday Parade, during which the Royal Gibraltar Regiment will parade its new Colours on home soil for the first time.

But Spain sees such shows of proud British identity as a provocation.

The visit comes as British and EU negotiators enter a critical final phase in talks that started last October, but which have dragged on longer than anticipated.