Starmer ‘well up to speed’ on Gib issues - CM

Sir Keir Starmer is “well up to speed on all matters Gibraltar”, Chief Minister Fabian Picardo said on Monday after “a quick chat” with the Prime Minister during the Labour Party conference in Liverpool.

Mr Picardo was at the conference to talk during a breakfast briefing and host the annual Gibraltar reception, as well as meet with UK ministers.

Health Minister Gemma Vasquez and Sir Joe Bossano, the Minister for Economic Development, were also at the conference to meet with UK ministers.

Mr Picardo said their meetings were to advance areas where the Gibraltar Government “needs contact and progress” with the UK Government.

“And the Labour Party conference is a great opportunity to progress all of those,” he added.

“The relationships with Gibraltar are strong.”

On Monday morning Mr Picardo took part in a fireside chat at the Labour Party conference International Business Breakfast.

Mr Picardo exchanged views on Europe, immigration and ID cards with Labour MP Dame Angela Eagle during the chat chaired by former Sky News Political Editor Adam Boulton. Sir Joe Bossano and Ms Arias-Vasquez also attended the breakfast, which explored the future of Britain’s Foreign Policy, Trade and Investment relationships.

Earlier, the Chief Minister also made clear to a UK public that the treaty negotiation was not about sovereignty, adding: “This is a deal about immigration and goods. It's not a deal about anything else.”

Speaking to Times Radio, Mr Picardo was quizzed by the veteran Mr Boulton, who asked him to what extent military issues figured in the negotiation.

“Well, it's not one of the issues, because we're not talking about that geostrategic strategic significance,” the Chief Minister replied.

“There's nothing to talk about there. It's a reality and it's British and it's going to stay British.”

“But the question is, how do you deal with derogations from what will be a deal and the free movement of people who live in Gibraltar, the free movement of goods in and out of Gibraltar, when the people that you're talking about are military people, and when the goods that you're talking about are military goods?”

“It's about finding a way to ensure that we ring, fence those goods so that the military base at Gibraltar can continue operating as it has until now.”

Mr Picardo said the joint sovereignty episode was in the past and that a Labour Government had since Gibraltar with the 2006 Constitution and the sovereignty double-lock.

“We trust Labour,” he said, adding past Conservative government has also taken steps that Gibraltar had opposed, not least the Brussels Declaration in 1984 and the 1987 airport agreement.

“I feel very much more secure. I think the modern leadership of the Labour party and of the Conservative Party understand that the principle of consent cannot be avoided in the context of Gibraltar, in the same way as it cannot be avoided anywhere now in the basis of modern democracy.”

Mr Picardo also defended the Rock’s commitment to international financial regluations and transparency, jokingly referring to author Somerset Maugham’s famous line that Monaco “is the sunny place for shady people”.

“If you look at what Margaret Hodge [a senior Labour MP, now a peer, who has championed greater financial transparency] says about the overseas territories and other territories, not just the British overseas territories, and about transparency, and you look at her last speech in the House of Commons, she said Gibraltar is the benchmark jurisdiction.”

“Gibraltar is the place that is still providing full transparency of its company's ownership.”