Yesterday morning a shiver went down my backbone after I noticed the information that David Lammy had travelled right down to Gibraltar at midnight for ‘negotiations’. To applicable a Ronald Reagan quote: “The eight most terrifying words in the English language are ‘I’m David Lammy and I’m here to negotiate.’”
We’ve already seen a disastrous tax giveaway to India; the lack of the Chagos Islands to Mauritus; a US commerce deal that leaves us with worse buying and selling phrases than a 12 months in the past; and the overall lack of backbone relating to Europe’s entry to our fishing waters. David Lammy’s offers disintegrate faster than a British Leyland automotive. And as soon as once more we see that in Gibraltar – absolutely our proudest abroad territory, aside from the Falkland Islands. Mr Lammy’s signed on the dotted line for a brand new deal that permits the Spanish to test British passports when touchdown on the rock.
Let’s be clear: Gibraltar is a part of Britain. So a lot so it acquired a vote within the EU referendum. This is the diplomatic equal of getting your passport checked by the Dutch when flying from Luton to Manchester.
I’ve now spoken to a former Foreign Office supply who was aware of the UK-Gibraltar negotiations in the course of the earlier Conservative authorities, who has confirmed the passport-checking a part of the deal is exactly what the Tories refused to collapse on.
They reveal that it was a key sticking level for the final authorities to not enable Spanish or EU border guards to test our passports on sovereign British soil.
Mr Cleverly knowledgeable the Spanish that neither Parliament nor voters would let that wash.
The supply added, merely: “Labour just caved”.
I put these factors to Keir Starmer’s official spokesman at a press briefing this morning, who didn’t deny that when once more it was our Government who blinked first and made the large concessions.
He informed the Express: “This government inherited a situation from the last government which left Gibraltar’s economy and way of life under threat.”
“Approximately 15,000 people – which is more than half of Gibraltar’s entire workforce – cross the border with Spain every single day.
“Temporary bridging measures were put in place, but these could have been rescinded at any time, and if an agreement was not reached, the EU’s incoming system of entry and exit control scheduled for October would have meant a hard border between Spain and Gibraltar, in which every individual passport was checked.
“This would have cost Gibraltar hundreds of millions a year, ruining Gibraltar’s economy and leaving the UK taxpayer to pick up the bill.”
I identified: “Many voters will feel that once again our government has turned up and just signed on the dotted line over a really quite important point of principle, namely that we will have Spaniards checking our passports on sovereign British territory.”
I used to be informed the Prime Minister doesn’t settle for this, and like a damaged document was knowledgeable it is a “good deal”.
The Government couldn’t say once we’ll truly see the textual content of the ultimate deal both, leaving Parliament in a limbo and unable to scrutinise what has been conceded.
I hope for all our sakes that David Lammy by no means takes a aircraft to the Falklands, or ‘Islas Malvinas’ as they could very nicely be named by the point of the following election.
https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/2067809/gibraltar-sell-out-explained-lammy