‘Betrayed’ Gibraltar: We warned May of Spain’s Brexit plot
THE Gibraltar crisis worsened last night after the colony’s government accused Theresa May of making it easier for Spain to use Brexit as an excuse to grab it back.
Well- placed sources said Gibraltar’s Chief Minister Fabian Picardo asked Mrs May to include Gibraltar’s right to stay British in her Article 50 letter – but he was ignored.
And Spain raised the stakes by threatening to link the fate of the Britons who live in Spain to resolving the row over the Rock. Some diplomats claim Mrs May blundered by not referring to Gibraltar in her letter to the EU setting out terms for Brexit talks.
The EU’s provocative reply stunned Downing Street by saying Spain could veto any Brexit deal by insisting on new talks on Gibraltar’s future.
Sources close to the Gibraltar government said: ‘The British Government was warned that the Spanish would use every trick in the book to use Brexit to get Gibraltar back on the table. That is why we advised them to indicate in the strongest terms to the EU that this would not be tolerated. We were bitterly disappointed when we were left out.’
Former Labour Defence Minister Kevan Jones said: ‘ We cannot stand by while the British Government betrays the people of Gibraltar. The Brexit talks haven’t even started and Mrs May and David Davis have made a total hash of it.’
Spain’s Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy yesterday boasted of his coup in persuading the EU to include the fate of Gibraltar in the negotiations.
According to reports, Rafael Hernando, s pokesman f or Rajoy’s ruling People’s Party, said giving Spain a veto over Gibraltar’s future in the Brexit negotiations was an ‘opportunity’ for Spain.
‘We take a positive view on anything that facilitates the reincorporation of Gibraltar into Spain,’ he said, adding that the British people had failed to ‘reflect sufficiently on the consequences of Brexit’.
Mr Hernando added: ‘We will work together to ensure this trauma at the core of the EU has the minimum con sequences for all.’
And in a comment that may cause alarm in the expat community, he added Spain was home to hundreds of thousands of British property owners, ‘not to mention the millions of British tourists’.
Until now, the EU has carefully avoided taking sides in the Gibraltar dispute: the EU’s letter giving Spain the right to re- open it marks a notable hardening of its policy.
Madrid has already indicated it would block a deal over aircraft landing rights in Gibraltar, which could see flights grounded. And it strongly opposes Gibraltar’s ‘unfair’ ten per cent business tax.
A UK Government spokeswoman last night reaffirmed its ‘ implacable support for Gibraltar’, adding: ‘ We have consulted Gibraltar throughout about our approach to exiting the EU and continue to do so.’