Gibraltar

Nigel Evans Excerpts

Thursday 8th January 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mike Gapes (Ilford South) (Lab/Co-op)]

Let me begin where the right hon. Member for Croydon South (Sir Richard Ottaway) ended. We in this country have important relations with Spain in the context of a number of issues. As the Committee itself made clear, Spain is an important European Union and NATO partner, and co-operates with the United Kingdom on a number of our strategic priorities. Some of those are listed in the report, including counter-terrorism and the combating of drug smuggling. There is an economic agenda within the European Union, and a reform agenda. Migration policy is a complex issue, and there are wider international and trade matters. Both the United Kingdom and Spain have historic associations with both north and south America that date from the colonial period, and both countries have a strong interest in the current talks on the transatlantic trade and investment partnership. Beyond that, both countries, as democratic, pluralistic societies, are appalled by terrorism, whether it is carried out in Paris or in countries such as Iraq and Syria.

We have a common agenda in many respects, and for that reason it is really shocking that the present right-wing Spanish Government, run by the Partido Popular, have decided to tear up the co-operation developed from 2004 onwards by the previous Labour Government and the previous socialist Government—run by the Partido Socialista Obrero Español—as well as the Cordoba agreement to which the right hon. Member for Croydon South referred.

We began our Gibraltar inquiry following our decision to conduct an inquiry into United Kingdom consular work, and to visit the consular hub that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office had established in Malaga, in southern Spain. From Malaga, we went to Gibraltar. Our visit to Malaga and our conversations with British people living and working in Spain—about 1 million people live there happily—showed us that Spanish people are hospitable, kind, friendly and supportive. Many Spanish people in the local authority that we visited were assisting British citizens who were resident in Spain.

Meanwhile, in the past two or three years an increasing number of Spanish people—predominantly young people—have come to work in London and other parts of the United Kingdom, including cities, because of the economic difficulties in Spain. There is two-way traffic. There are families consisting of children born in one country and parents from the two countries. There is a mixture consisting of many people with connections between the United Kingdom and Spain, including some senior political figures in our Government.

[Mr Nigel Evans (Ribble Valley) (Con)]

Does the hon. Gentleman agree that a huge number of Spanish people work in Gibraltar and get on very well with Gibraltarian people, and that we should respect that?

[Mike Gapes]

The hon. Gentleman pre-empts my next point.

It became apparent to me during the inquiry—the Committee Chairman touched on this—that there are 8,000 or 9,000 people who every day travel from Spain into Gibraltar to work, so a very large number of Spanish citizens depend on the Gibraltarian economy for their employment and prosperity. Why, then, are the Spanish Government behaving in such a stupid way by stopping those workers either travelling to work or coming home because they face queues and delays of two, three or four hours in getting across the border in their vehicles or, sometimes, on foot? This is an ideologically driven agenda designed by people in Madrid who clearly do not care about the livelihoods of the members of the trade unions I met here in the House of Commons who had come from the south of Spain to talk to British MPs about the difficulties they face. They were hosted by Unite, which has associations with workers both in Gibraltar and internationally in Spain.

A clue is provided by the politics of Andalucia and the south of Spain: they generally vote for the left, whereas the Government in Madrid are dominated by the right. Sadly, therefore, since the change in 2011 the Madrid Government have shown contempt for their own citizens and their economic interests by behaving in a vindictive way against Gibraltar and at the same time damaging the interests of Spanish people and workers.

The British Government should be doing more to highlight the situation, as should international organisations such as the International Labour Organisation and those that look at issues to do with human rights and free movement.

Why has this issue come up at this moment in time? In Spain—and, indeed, elsewhere—there has been a rise of populist opposition against the incumbent Government. The governing party might believe it can pander to those opponents by raising the nationalist card over Gibraltar and thereby diverting attention from the country’s internal economic problems. I do not think that is going to work in the long term, but we shall see, because Spain, like the UK, is supposed to have an election this year. I do not think the governing parties in either country will get the results they want, but I do not want to get diverted into domestic politics.

Our Government must be more robust on this matter internationally. We have seen in a number of international forums that when the British Government are determined, they can make a real difference, but we have not been strong enough or vocal enough on the issue of Gibraltar. There is clearly international support for the UK position in many countries, but we are not doing enough to build that support, whereas Spain is working very hard internationally in its own interests.

A resolution tabled in the US Congress last year referred to the rights of self-determination of the people of Gibraltar. It is clear from a letter that has only just become public that, from September, the Spanish ambassador to the United States lobbied extremely hard against it, using all kinds of implied threats about the consequences, to try to stop that bipartisan resolution being carried in the US House of Representatives.

Internationally, it is clear that the present Spanish Government, unlike their predecessors, are not interested in coming to a modus vivendi on these issues. The previous Spanish Government did not accept, and would never accept, that there was any question of British sovereignty of Gibraltar, but they accepted the reality that there was an agreement to differ and that they should therefore deal with the practical issues and leave the other issues to one side. That is how the improvements from 2004 onwards were achieved and sustained. The ideological approach of the current Spanish Government, however, seems to put a nationalist agenda before the interests of their own people, and ahead of co-operation with the UK and the interests of the people of Gibraltar.

Our report has highlighted an important issue. Apparently the situation has improved since we published it, with a reduction in the number and intensity of obstructions to people travelling into and out of Gibraltar, but that can be switched on or off at any time, as we saw when we visited. When we drove into Gibraltar, there was no queue. We went to our hotel and within an hour we had a call saying that suddenly there was a massive backlog at the border because the Spanish police were imposing restrictions and searching all vehicles. There was a big queue and the car park was full in the space of only about 40 minutes to an hour. This is politically motivated and it is being run by special paramilitary police from Madrid, not the local police. It is all part of a special, politically designed operation.

The truth needs to be told. We need to get this agenda out: there are people in Spain who have an agenda based on an ideological approach that damages the working of the EU—it damages the possibility of agreements within the EU being arrived at in a timely manner—as well as the interests of the Spanish people and the democratic, self-determination interests of the people of Gibraltar. I hope the Government will heed what is said in this debate and be more forceful and vocal on these matters in future.

--- Later in debate ---

[Andrew Rosindell (Romford) (Con)]

I am delighted that we are debating the report today. I commend my right hon. Friend the Member for Croydon South (Sir Richard Ottaway). The debate would not be taking place today had it not been for his casting vote on the Committee to make sure that we have the report. It is right that we should address the multitude of issues that Gibraltar has faced over many years.

However, it is wrong that we as a Foreign Affairs Committee debate and discuss issues relating to a British territory. The Committee deals with the middle east, Europe and our relations with the United States and the wider world. There is only limited time to deal with matters relating to overseas territories that are sovereign British territories, are ultimately governed by this House and are subject to British law. A new arrangement is needed so that overseas territories issues are fast-tracked. There should be a way of dealing with those issues much more quickly to ensure that overseas territories that rely on the British Government to make decisions for them and to help them deal with important matters such as those that we are debating today are able to bring them to a Committee of the House, without having to wait a long time for a Select Committee to happen to look into the matter.

The hon. Member for Ilford South (Mike Gapes) said that the report on Gibraltar arose from a report we were doing on consular services. Had we not done that report and had we not gone to Malaga, I do not think we would ever have gone to Gibraltar to look into this serious issue. There must in future be a better way of dealing with issues relating to overseas territories; otherwise they will be overlooked and a serious debate such as we are having today will never take place.

As is evident from the speeches that we have heard, we are all proud of the special constitutional relationship Gibraltar has with the United Kingdom as a British overseas territory. Gibraltar is British. It has been British for over 300 years and I believe it will always remain British, not because we have decided that but because the people of the Rock have chosen that destiny. They have made their choice over and over again. The sad thing is that our Foreign Office—or our Foreign and Commonwealth Office, as it should be called—has never treated Gibraltar as equally British. It has always treated it like something down the road, to be looked at. We are always worried about upsetting Madrid, always worried about what Spain will say if we do anything on Gibraltar.

Having spoken on the subject for nearly 14 years in the Chamber, I am heartily fed up with the failure of the Foreign Office to acknowledge that Gibraltar should be defended in the same way as we would defend our own constituents. It is time that the Minister and the Foreign Office changed their approach not only to Gibraltar but to British overseas territories in general.

[Mr Nigel Evans]

I am sure my hon. Friend, like me, has had the opportunity to visit Gibraltar on its national day, when everybody turns out and says that they are proud to be from Gibraltar and proud to be British. If our own Minister has not had an opportunity to do so, would it not be a good idea if he visited Gibraltar on national day and joined in the celebrations of being British and being Gibraltarian?

[Andrew Rosindell]

My hon. Friend is right. I have been privileged to go to Gibraltar national day on many occasions over the years. It is impossible to find people who are prouder of their British nationality and more determined to retain that nationality, but who feel, as we do, part of the great British family, yet continually have to justify their desire to stay British. Gibraltar is not treated as equally British, as we would expect our constituencies to be treated if ever they were under threat or if ever they were attacked by a foreign power. We need a new arrangement to give our overseas territories, particularly Gibraltar and the Falkland Islands, which have a similar problem, the right to be heard in this House, via a Select Committee or by some other means.

My hon. Friend the Member for Ribble Valley (Mr Evans) referred to Gibraltar national day. I would like to commend our Prime Minister, who the year before last became the first to send a televised message for national day, which was shown in Casemates square in Gibraltar. However, it is time that he, or even the Minister, visited Gibraltar for national day. Furthermore, it is time that there was a royal visit to Gibraltar, as my hon. Friend the Member for Filton and Bradley Stoke (Jack Lopresti) said. It is more than 60 years since Her Majesty the Queen visited Gibraltar. There has not been a visit by the Queen of Gibraltar in over 60 years. I think that is completely unacceptable. I have raised the matter with the Minister many times but have never got an answer from anyone in the Government.

I am delighted to hear that the Queen is to make a state visit to Germany later this year. Gibraltar is not much further away, and I have no doubt that the Government of Gibraltar would extend a very warm invitation to Her Majesty, so I ask our Government, in the last few months of this Parliament, to clear any block there might be to a royal visit. Please allow the Queen of Gibraltar the opportunity to visit her people on the Rock. There could be no clearer signal that we are utterly committed to Gibraltar and determined to support it and give it the full recognition it deserves as a loyal territory of the Crown.

So much has been said today about the problems with the borders, the maritime disputes, the European Union’s failure properly to address the issues we are debating and the negligence of the Foreign Office. I am pleased that Members of Parliament now understand the situation better than they did 14 years ago. When I was first elected, many barely even knew what Gibraltar was. Now Members on both sides of the House understand that a British overseas territory is British and that we have a duty to look after and defend its people. Dreadful mistakes were made in 2001 and 2002, when the previous Government attempted to impose a joint sovereignty deal with Madrid. I do not think that any political party in this country would make such a horrendous mistake again. That is a good thing, because it means a lesson has been learnt.

However, we cannot move forward unless the Foreign and Commonwealth Office changes its approach root and branch. We must stop appeasing Madrid and being afraid of upsetting the Spanish Government in case they might not co-operate with us on the many areas that the hon. Member for Ilford South referred to. We want to co-operate, but there cannot be good relations with the kingdom of Spain as long as it bullies British subjects living close to its land. We must give Spain the message loud and clear that its attitude to Gibraltar is unacceptable to the British Parliament and to the British people. Only the Foreign Office has the authority to make those kinds of decisions in order to show Spain that its actions have consequences. For as long as Spain continues to behave in this fashion, there will be consequences. Relations between the United Kingdom and Spain will never be warm as long as it continues to bully the people of the Rock. We need a complete shake-up in Government policy. We require a more robust stance in dealing with the issues to which I and other hon. Members have referred today.

There is one other thing that we must do. It is, in my view, completely unacceptable that the only countries and territories within the Commonwealth that are continually denied the right to lay a wreath on Remembrance Sunday are the British overseas territories. It is inexcusable that no one from Gibraltar, the Falkland Islands or any other British territory is invited to lay a wreath. We know what the argument is going to be—that the Foreign Secretary does it on behalf of the overseas territories. Well, I have news for the Minister: the Foreign Secretary was not elected by the citizens of the overseas territories; he is the British Foreign Secretary elected by the British people. The people of Gibraltar have not chosen the Foreign Secretary to lay a wreath on their behalf. Gibraltar has sent soldiers to fight and die for king, queen and country over hundreds of years, and so have the other overseas territories. If they send soldiers to fight, they should be allowed to lay a wreath on behalf of those who have lost their lives. It is inexcusable. I have heard every excuse about the palace objecting, the Foreign Secretary not having a role any more, and so on. It is all nonsense; we all know the truth. It is time that the overseas territories were given this right.

I have here a letter to the Prime Minister from the chairman of the United Kingdom Overseas Territories Association, Albert Poggio GMH OBE, who, as we all know, is the excellent head of the Gibraltar Government office here in London. Let me quote some of his words:

“Countless numbers of persons from Gibraltar and the other Overseas Territories made the supreme sacrifice in the service of the Crown and the United Kingdom in all the Wars of the 20th Century, as well as in the more recent conflicts of the 21st Century. For the Representatives of their Governments to be excluded from the Remembrance Service is, to be frank, offensive and perverse…We believe that it is now time that each of the Overseas Territories had a wreath laid by each of the Territories’ UK Representatives, on the same basis and immediately following those wreaths laid by the Commonwealth High Commissioners.”

Who can argue with that point of view?

We must raise this issue and bring it to a head before the general election. I call on the Prime Minister to intervene personally and once and for all, for ever more, give the British overseas territories the right to lay a wreath on Remembrance Sunday, just as we have this year allowed the Irish Government—the Irish ambassador —to lay a wreath in recognition of the sacrifices that Irish citizens made in the first world war and in other conflicts. This matter is overdue for resolution. I urge the Minister to take it away and resolve it before Parliament is dissolved at the end of March.

We could speak about this issue for far longer than we have time for in this debate. I feel deeply passionate about Gibraltar and wholeheartedly endorse all the comments made by my right hon. and hon. Friends. The time has come to stop appeasing Madrid, to stop pussy-footing over this issue, and to show the people of Gibraltar that we are truly on their side. People have died throughout the centuries to defend British freedom, British democracy and British territories. By being so weak over Gibraltar, as we are at the moment, we are betraying all those people who have defended British freedom over all those centuries. It is time for this Government to show real action and to defend Gibraltar as it deserves to be defended: as a British territory—a territory of the Crown—that should always be British. We have a duty to stand by it.