Gibraltar reminds May of Brexit woes

Michael Howard, after a short stint as leader of the Conservative party, was bumped into the House of Lords and relative obscurity upon losing the elections in 2005. It is worrying therefore that he still has the capacity to cause a rumpus. His jingoistic remarks on Gibraltar as Britain prepares to negotiate its withdrawal from the EU were unhelpful to say the least. Theresa May’s government would be as ready to go to war to defend the territory from the Spanish, he suggested on Sunday, as Margaret Thatcher was to defend the Falklands from Argentina 35 years ago.

London has been blindsided by the European Council’s decision to include the status of Gibraltar among its priorities for the forthcoming Brexit negotiations. Draft EU guidelines explicitly said no agreement on the future relationship with the UK would apply to the territory without Spanish consent. The British government is understandably uneasy about the emphasis placed in the guidelines on Spain’s veto and the possibility that Madrid could use Brexit negotiations to press its case for joint sovereignty over the rock. That is no justification, however, for intemperate language at this delicate moment, least of all for talk of war.

Gibraltar was ceded to Britain by the Spanish in 1713. Ninety-six per cent of its electorate voted in favour of remaining in the union at 2016’s referendum. There are good reasons for this. Gibraltar has enjoyed privileged EU status. It is outside the customs union but inside the single market. Nearly all of the goods that enter the territory come from Spain, as do more than 10,000 Spanish workers. Brexit complicates Gibraltar’s situation because of Britain’s preoccupation with ending free movement and imposing restrictions on EU citizens coming to Britain. Should these remain a UK demand, the EU could reciprocate. That risks resulting in the imposition of a hard border between Gibraltar and Spain, as it does in Ireland. London, April 3.