Sovereignty of Gibraltar and other OTs 'not up for negotiation' - Doughty

The UK is “resolutely committed” to all its Overseas Territories including Gibraltar, Europe Minister Stephen Doughty said, adding sovereignty of the territories is “not up for negotiation”.

His statement came amid criticism that the UK’s decision to hand over sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius weakened its strategic interests and should concern other overseas territories, in particular Gibraltar and the Falkland Islands given Spanish and Argentine sovereignty aspirations.

But the UK and Gibraltar governments have insisted the Chagos Islands case is different to other UK territories and that there is no “read across” to Gibraltar or other UK territories.

Writing on X, formerly Twitter, on Saturday, Mr Doughty, Minister of State (Europe, North America and Overseas Territories) at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, said: “British sovereignty of the Falkland Islands, Gibraltar or any other of our Overseas Territories is not up for negotiation.”

“The Chagos Islands are a very different issue with a very different history.”

“The UK remains resolutely committed to all our Overseas Territories.”

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer defended giving up UK control of the Chagos Islands on Friday and said the agreement with Mauritius over the remote archipelago would achieve the “single most important thing” of securing the long-term future of a joint US-UK military base on Diego Garcia, the largest of the islands.

But Sir Keir, asked to guarantee that no other British overseas territories would be signed away, avoided a direct answer and instead replied: “The single most important thing was ensuring that we had a secure base, the joint US-UK base; hugely important to the US, hugely important to us.”

“We’ve now secured that and that is why you saw such warm words from the US yesterday.”

That response fuelled furious criticism in some sections of UK media and speculation about the future of Gibraltar and the Falkland Islands, prompting Mr Doughty’s post on X.

On Saturday, Chief Minister Fabian Picardo also posted on X in a bid to quell the speculation, sharing a letter sent to the people of Gibraltar by Sir Keir on National Day.

In that letter, Sir Keir wrote: “You have my assurances that this Government will never compromise on Gibraltar’s sovereignty.”
Sir Keir said the UK Government would “continue to honour and defend” the UK/Gibraltar relationship as enshrined in the Constitution, which includes a commitment on sovereignty.

And he added: “We will never enter into arrangements under which the people of Gibraltar would pass under the sovereignty of another State against their freely and democratically expressed wishes, nor into a process of sovereignty negotiations with which Gibraltar is not content.”

In his post on X, Mr Picardo said the reports in the UK media raising questions about the future of Gibraltar and other overseas territories “are wrong”.

“The Prime Minister has explicitly ruled out any transfer of the sovereignty of Gibraltar,” Mr Picardo said.

“He has done so in writing [and] I shared that with everyone on the Rock on National Day, three weeks ago.”

“Here is his incontrovertible, written commitment.”

“We have his explicit commitment that the Labour Government will never compromise on Gibraltar's sovereignty and commitment to the double lock.”

“The Foreign Secretary and the Minister for Europe have repeated those commitments.”

“There is no issue here and no room to make one up to sell newspapers or unfairly tarnish an opponent.”

Much of the criticism in the UK press comes from Tory MPs, even though talks between the UK and Mauritius to reach an agreement began under the previous Conservative government in 2022.

But on Sunday, shadow foreign secretary Andrew Mitchell said the deal with Mauritius is “not the deal the last Conservative government would have done”,

Mr Mitchell told Sky News’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips programme: “Starting the negotiations is not the same as concluding them and from what I’ve seen this is definitely not a deal either [former foreign secretaries] David Cameron or indeed James Cleverly would have done and we need to see the terms that they’re offering."

“We need to know about what protection there is against Chinese encroachment into the archipelago, we need to know what money is being provided by the British taxpayer. We need to probe the terms of the lease, after all, the lease in Hong Kong wasn’t what we had hoped."

“And we need to do all those things and the right place to do them is in the House of Commons, and His Majesty’s Opposition will put down tomorrow [Monday] an urgent question in the House of Commons if there isn’t a statement from the Government so that we can probe the terms of this."

“But from what we have seen so far, and by the way, it should’ve been announced in the House of Commons which is the right place to do these things, from what we’ve seen so far, this looks like a bad deal for Britain.”

The United Nations’ highest court, the International Court of Justice, previously ruled the UK’s administration of the territory was “unlawful” and must end.

The agreement over the continued UK-US military presence on Diego Garcia, announced on Thursday, is expected to run for 99 years and Britain will pay an annual sum of money.

Critics have claimed it risks allowing China to gain a military foothold in the Indian Ocean.

In the wake of the announcement, Argentina’s foreign minister, Diana Mondino, promised “concrete action” to ensure that the Falklands, the British-controlled archipelago that Argentina calls the Malvinas and claims as its own, are handed to Buenos Aires.

“Following the path we have already taken, with concrete actions and not empty rhetoric, we will recover full sovereignty over our Malvinas Islands,” she said.

The Falklands’ governor, Alison Blake, has already sought to reassure residents that the UK’s commitment to the territory is “unwavering”.

“I am aware that there may be concerns, either amongst the Falkland Islands community or others, of potential read across to the Falkland Islands,” she said in a statement on Friday.

“I would like to reassure you that the legal and historical contexts of the Chagos Archipelago and the Falkland Islands are very different.”

“UK Ministers have been very clear throughout the process that the UK will not agree to anything that runs the risk of jeopardising sovereignty in the other Overseas Territories.”

“The UK Government remains committed to defending the Falklands Islanders’ right of self-determination, and the UK’s unwavering commitment to defend UK sovereignty remains undiminished.”

The Spanish government has remained silent following the Chagos announcement but the issue was raised by the Partido Popular during a session on Friday of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Spanish Congress.

“Has the Spanish government not been able to do something similar to Chagos?” asked Carlos Floriano, the PP MP on the committee.

“Why? Why hasn't this issue been used to defend [Spain’s position on] Gibraltar?”

“According to the United Nations, the only three cases left to decolonise, based on the principle of territorial integrity and not self-determination, are Chagos, the Malvinas (Falklands Islands), and Gibraltar.”

Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares, to whom the question was addressed, avoided answering it.

On Saturday evening, Reform UK leader and Clacton MP Nigel Farage said he had written to Foreign Secretary David Lammy to request a debate be held on the Chagos Islands.

In his letter, Mr Farage said “The future of the Chagos Islands was announced when the House was not sitting, meaning that Members of Parliament from all parties remain in the dark about so many aspects of this decision”.