UK committed to Gib treaty, Lammy says after meeting CM

Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the UK Government remains committed to a UK/EU treaty on Gibraltar’s post-Brexit relations with the bloc.

Mr Lammy, who was appointed Foreign Secretary on July 5 after Labour’s landslide win the UK general election, delivered the message on Wednesday evening in a post on social media after meeting Chief Minister Fabian Picardo in London for talks on the treaty negotiation.

“This Government is committed to concluding a UK-EU agreement which provides certainty for Gibraltar and its people,” Mr Lammy wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

“With @FabianPicardo today, I reaffirmed our support to them in all eventualities and reiterated that we will only agree to terms that Gibraltar is content with.”

Speaking to the Chronicle after the meeting, Mr Picardo said Mr Lammy was fully up to speed on the negotiation.

“I have found him entirely au fait with the latest issues in the negotiation, and fully aware of where the issues that concern us would be,” Mr Picardo said.

The Gibraltar Government had for months prior to the UK election briefed Labour shadow politicians including Mr Lammy and Stephen Doughty, now the Minister for Europe and North America at the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office, on developments in the negotiation.

Former Foreign Secretary Lord David Cameron had also briefed Mr Lammy prior to the election to ensure cross party support for the negotiating position whatever the result.

“Therefore, it's been a very easy meeting, taking up the position as if there had been no change in government in the United Kingdom,” Mr Picardo said.

“I'm very comfortable about the fact that the Labour administration is now involved in the negotiation.”

“We will continue to be able to say we're working hand in glove with the UK government.”

As has been the case throughout the negotiation, Mr Picardo would not be drawn on the detail of the negotiation, which continues at a technical level.

But he gave a sense that while there was progress in some areas, negotiators were mired in others.

“I would say that it is a roller coaster negotiation, that there are things which are progressing very well, and issues which are becoming more difficult as the technical aspects of them become more apparent in the negotiating table,” he said.

“That doesn't mean that there are not ways that we can deal with the concerns, but we have to be very clear: This has to be a negotiation which is win, win, win, win.”

“We have to ensure that Gibraltar wins, that the United Kingdom wins, that Europe wins and that Spain wins.”

“But not on any issue which is fundamental, where we must ensure that the red lines of none of the parties are in any way transgressed.”

“That means our fundamental core red lines and all of the issues that every Gibraltarian knows off by heart on sovereignty, and all of the issues that are relevant to us, both politically, legally and economically.”

“But that must also be the case for the United Kingdom, which has equities here and has issues in its relationship with Europe, and for the European Union itself, which is the guardian of the treaties, the protection of the Single Market and the security, the integrity of the Schengen area.”

“And for Spain, which has a different conception of the sovereignty issues and in the same way as we don't want Spain to transgress our red lines, Spain will not want us to transgress their red lines.”

“We need to ensure that we obviate that by ensuring that our red lines do not cross each other.”

“That's difficult. It's not easy.”

“We are very close in some areas, but in some areas new technical aspects are appearing which are making it once again difficult but not impossible to be able to reach that win, win, win.”

The meeting with Mr Lammy came days before the Foreign Secretary is due to meet his Spanish counterpart, Jose Manuel Albares, for a bilateral UK-Spain meeting in London.

That will be the first bilateral between the two foreign ministers and is not centred on Gibraltar but rather on wider issues of the UK/Spain relationship.

It is likely though that the Gibraltar negotiation will be raised and that the meeting could help unblock some of the pending issues.

“It's not about Gibraltar,” Mr Picardo said.

“We would never agree to a bilateral between the UK and Spain over Gibraltar, but of course, because they'll be dealing with other issues, there is an opportunity for David to raise with Jose Manuel some of the things that he and I think it's important for him to raise in this first interpersonal contact.”

“And I'm expecting that it will be about much broader issues than just Gibraltar, but Gibraltar will get a mention and there are a couple of issues which we may be able to advance in that respect.”

If the discussions are fruitful, they could potentially clear the way for another top-level summit in Brussels.

There were two high-level summits in Brussels before the summer that brought together the then UK Foreign Secretary, Lord Cameron, Mr Albares, the EU’s chief negotiator Maros Sefcovic, and Chief Minister Fabian Picardo, but both meetings failed to seal the agreement.

A number of thorny issues remain unresolved, including the practical arrangements of how Schengen controls would be carried out in Gibraltar should an agreement be reached.

Asked whether a deal was possible before changes at the European Commission and the entry into force a new automated immigration system at EU borders in November, Mr Picardo said he would not set any “temporal horizon” for the negotiation.

“If I did, it would become a noose that would start pressing on the neck of the Gibraltar negotiating team, and therefore every Gibraltarian,” he said.

He acknowledged the changes approaching in November but said that throughout the negotiation there have been “issues on the horizon”.

“Every time there's been an issue on the horizon, it has been suggested to me that it was the cliff edge,” he said.

“I don't see any cliff edges, although, of course, there may be issues in the future that make things harder, practically and logistically.”

“But we have to continue negotiating without setting a temporal time limit that could make the negotiation harder for the people of Gibraltar.”

“It's important to get the right outcome, to get it in a way that can potentially endure, and to ensure that in doing so, the outcome is safe, secure and beneficial to Gibraltar.”

“That's my job. It's not my job to get it quickly. It's my job to get it as soon as possible.”

Mr Picardo also addressed lingering concerns that people in Gibraltar may have about a Labour government following the joint sovereignty episode.

“I know that people in Gibraltar will immediately say that Labour did joint sovereignty in 2003,” the Chief Minister said.

“But I would also remind people that after the [joint sovereignty] referendum, Labour gave us the double lock under the 2006 Constitution.”

“So I think that we will be able to continue seamlessly working hand in glove in this negotiation with the new Labour administration, with no concerns about the fulsome support that we will be receiving from the new UK Government.”

Mr Picardo was accompanied at the meeting by Deputy Chief Minister Dr Joseph Garcia and Attorney General Michael Llamas.