UK ‘must do more for Gib’ on Brexit, Azopardi says

Gibraltar is not getting enough support from the UK in the Brexit process, GSD Leader Keith Azopardi said yesterday.

In an interview with the Chronicle, Mr Azopardi added that while the Gibraltar Government had worked hard to protect the Rock’s interests, it should perhaps have taken a tougher stance to secure firm commitments from UK ministers.

Mr Azopardi was speaking after the UK Government published a white paper on Brexit this week setting out how it will legislate for the withdrawal agreement.

The document included a reference to the Rock but Mr Azopardi said the measures it contained were geared to UK interests with “no real reflection on what is necessary for Gibraltar”.

Mr Azopardi said that while Gibraltar’s inclusion was welcome, it was also “completely peripheral” to the main thrust of the document.

“They say that they are going to try to negotiate something that is convenient to Gibraltar, but it is so different to the way Northern Ireland gets talked about,” he told the Chronicle.

Comparing the UK Government’s treatment of the two, Mr Azopardi highlighted how, for Northern Ireland, there is a “real commitment” to aspects such as trade and ensuring there is no hard border.

“That’s not what you see in the case of Gibraltar,” he said.

“We are grouped together with other overseas territories without recognising the uniqueness of Gibraltar and the fact that we are the only mainland Europe-British border.”

“None of that is ever mentioned.”

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