Cabinet Office holds back Gib file

Embargoed to 0001 Friday December 29 File photo dated 22/12/15 of a member of staff in the repositories of the National Archives in Kew. More than a dozen confidential government files covering Britain's European policy in the early 1990s have been held back from public release. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Issue date: Friday December 29, 2017. Of the 45 European files due to be released to the National Archives at Kew, west London, 13 have been retained by the Cabinet Office. See PA story RECORDS Europe. Photo credit should read: Yui Mok/PA Wire

29th December 2017

A Downing Street file on British policy towards Gibraltar is among almost 200 files that are now due for release but which have been ‘retained’ by the Cabinet Office and will not be made public today.

The retained file covers a five year period from December 1986 to March 1992 during which two general elections in Gibraltar took place against the background of the controversial Anglo-Spanish ‘Brussels Agreement’.

In 1988 the GSLP won its first overall majority and substantially increased its share of the vote four years later.

Other papers withheld from this release include 38 files on ‘European policy’ and files relating to the Falkland Islands and the UK's relations with the Vatican.

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