Gibraltar Treaty

Lord Purvis of Tweed Excerpts

Tuesday 3rd March 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Callanan (Con)]

I am grateful to the Minister for giving the House the opportunity to ask questions on this Statement. I should begin by saying that the Official Opposition welcome the fact that the Government of Gibraltar have been at the table throughout these negotiations. Gibraltar is British. The Government tell us that sovereignty was never on the table throughout these negotiations, and it never should be. I only wish they were consistent in their application of this approach to other treaties.

This treaty runs to more than 1,000 pages and, of course, we need time carefully to consider the detail. I thank the Minister and his colleagues for ensuring the publication of the treaty in draft. This has allowed us to begin the process of scrutiny early. Can the Minister say when the treaty will be laid formally so that we can plan for the CRaG process that will follow? When we went through the CRaG process for the 2025 UK-Mauritius treaty, the Government failed to follow the Ponsonby rule, which established the convention that the Government will allow a debate on a substantive Motion in respect of treaty ratification where a formal request is made by the Official Opposition. Can the Minister confirm whether the Government will follow the convention if a request is received in respect of this treaty?

On a connected scrutiny point, can the Minister say whether domestic legislation will also be needed before we proceed to ratification? If so, when will that be laid before the House? As the Minister knows, we have been critical of the Government’s sequencing of the agreements in respect to the UK-Mauritius treaty and the Bill, so can he say whether the Government are aware of any extant and binding treaties in respect of Gibraltar that may be in tension with the terms of the draft treaty that has now been agreed with the EU?

I turn from process to the practicalities of the treaty. Can the Minister please set out the steps that will be taken under the treaty to protect the rights of British citizens freely to visit Gibraltar? We know that dual passport checks will be undertaken at the airport in Gibraltar. What recourse will a citizen have in circumstances where Spanish border control and British border control are in disagreement on a person’s admission to what will remain British territory? Can he say what oversight UK authorities will have over the activities of the Spanish border control operations in Gibraltar? What is the process for dispute resolution?

Ministers know that we on these Benches have profound concerns about the process of dynamic alignment. We must not be rule-takers. How will dynamic alignment operate under this treaty? How will Gibraltar and the UK avoid becoming subject to ongoing EU rule-taking without meaningful political control? Can the Minister confirm that Gibraltar and not EU politicians will decide on her own future?

When the Minister in the other place was asked about Article 25 and its reference to the ECHR, he said that

“we comply with the ECHR, as does Gibraltar and, indeed, Spain and the EU. We do not shy away from that”.—[Official Report, 26/2/26; col. 489.]

That is, obviously, a statement of the status quo, but can the Minister please explain what the status of Article 25 would be if the UK were to withdraw from the ECHR? Would an amendment to the treaty need to be agreed with the EU at that point or could the UK derogate from Article 25 unilaterally?

Finally, on a point of fairness, this treaty appears to create an imbalance in the treatment of EU citizens and UK citizens. An EU national may have free access to Gibraltar through the land border without any restrictions whatever, but a British national travelling from the UK could potentially be banned from entering at the airport by Spanish border control guards. These are challenging issues, and we understand why compromise can be necessary, but could the Minister please set out the work that he is doing to ensure that UK citizens continue to have smooth and free access to Gibraltar, which is, after all, still a British territory? I look forward to the Minister’s reply to these questions.

[Lord Purvis of Tweed (LD)]

My Lords, I welcome the Minister back to FCDO business, even though it may well be temporary. These Benches support this treaty. In the House of Commons, without any sense of irony, the Conservative Opposition said that Parliament had been kept in the dark about this treaty. However, it was the previous Government who ignored the wishes of the 96% of people of Gibraltar who sought to remain in the EU, forced on them the hardest of Brexits, took no action to correct the damage that they were told by Gibraltarians would happen, and then refused to present to Parliament a mandate for negotiations to have a sustainable agreement.

I therefore thank the Government for working closely with the Gibraltar Government and agreeing with these Benches, who said before the election that nothing about Gibraltar should be agreed without Gibraltar. I also put on record the hard work of the Chief Minister and the Deputy Chief Minister, Joseph Garcia, who is from our sister party, as well as of officials, including the recently retired Dominique Searle, the Gibraltar representative in the UK, for all their patience, perseverance and dedication to reach agreement.

I welcome the fact that the Gibraltar Parliament is debating this treaty as we speak. The fact that the Gibraltar Government have accepted a constructive amendment from the opposition means that we will likely see it pass unanimously in the Gibraltar Parliament and then be sent to us for consideration under the CRaG process. I hope that, if our EU committee seeks a debate on this, the Government will honour the Grimstone convention in this House and timetable a debate. I would be grateful if the Minister could confirm that the Government will do that if the EU committee seeks it.

These Benches have supported, and will always support, the right of the Gibraltarians to decide their future. Therefore, can the Minister confirm that there are no sovereignty concessions and, indeed, no mechanisms in this treaty that would allow for sovereignty claims? I know that the Gibraltar Government sought independent legal advice to confirm this, but the Minister putting it on the record at the Dispatch Box would be helpful.

I believe that the EU and Spain have entered into these new arrangements in good faith, but we have to be conscious of the previous unilateral actions of Madrid, which has caused disruption and concern for Gibraltarians in the past. Can we receive assurances that the dispute resolution mechanisms between the EU and the UK will also allow for Gibraltar to seek to extract itself from the terms should it feel that the terms have been reneged on? I hope that that will never be necessary, but we do not know; a right-wing Government in Madrid might perhaps take a different view from the current one.

I note also the Gibraltar Government’s pragmatic position on the involvement and operation of the ECJ. We are perhaps starting to see sensible approaches again, which is welcome. As we seek better and closer relations with the EU, can we ensure in the reset on SPS and, I hope, youth movement that there will be no negative implications for this treaty? I would be grateful if the Minister could confirm that. Also, as part of the SPS discussions, can we seek an SPS point for Gibraltar adjacent to Gibraltar—not farther away than currently being envisaged—which will be greatly beneficial to the Gibraltar economy?

The benefits of the work of the Gib Government will be for the people and the economy of Gibraltar. There are 15,000 crossings each day for workers in Gibraltar. All parts of society are interconnected. The healthcare and social care service is reliant on staffing and family relationships cross the frontier. This does not make any Gibraltarian less British, but it does mean that easing and removing friction is a pressing need.

We would also like to see no delay now in the implementation and I ask the Minister if we are preparing for provisional implementation of the agreed text, prior to formal ratification, to avoid the unnecessary burden of installing costly infrastructure for entry and exit systems before 10 April. This would be a pragmatic and welcome step.

We welcome the approach of the Gibraltar Government, the UK Government and the EU, and we hope that we can learn positive lessons and build on this leadership by Gibraltar so that the rest of the UK can adopt a similar mechanism and processes to enjoy the benefits that Gibraltar will see. If it is good for the people and economy of Gibraltar, does the Minister agree that it is good for the people and the economy of the UK as a whole?