Guess who Miriam’s backing?

THE Spanish have a right to feel aggrieved about the status of Gibraltar, Miriam Clegg claimed yesterday.

The wife of the former Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg said she was not surprised by the power grab from Madrid, saying: ‘Theresa May should have seen it coming.’

Mrs Clegg, who was born in Spain and is now a high-powered City lawyer who prefers to use her Spanish maiden name Gonzalez Durantez, said there were ‘two sides’ to the dispute.

But, speaking on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show, she argued that the noises coming from Madrid were ‘conciliatory’. ‘This is obviously a territorial dispute,’ she said.

‘I think we need to lower the temperature, both in the UK and the EU. The fact is that, to Spaniards, in any history there are two sides.’

She said Spain’s main political concern was related to the low tax rates operated by Gibraltar, adding: ‘Imagine if you had a rock off Dover with the second biggest accounting presence in the world after the British Virgin isles and the fifth biggest presence of banks.

‘That happens because of tax regulation there … that is a concern to Spain.’