UK should ‘seize the day’ and make all British citizens equal, CM says

The UK should “seize the day” and ensure all British citizens in UK territories around the world enjoy the same right to representation in Westminster, albeit without eroding existing constitutional powers in each territory.

That was one of the key messages from Chief Minister Fabian Picardo during an evidence session before the House of Commons Procedure Committee, which is examining options for OTs representation in the UK Parliament.

In a dense and at times tetchy exchange with UK MPs, Mr Picardo explained that under the 2006 Constitution, Gibraltar was responsible for its own affairs save for defence, internal security and external relations, which remained the responsibility of the UK.

But the UK retained the right to legislate in Gibraltar’s areas of responsibility too, even if there was a convention that it would not do so unless the Gibraltar Government agreed.

He said the UK and Gibraltar had been able to avoid any potential conflict arising from such a situation.

But in a written submission to the committee ahead of Monday’s session, the Gibraltar Government had said the UK Government’s reserved powers to legislate “over the heads” of Gibraltar’s elected representatives should be removed from Gibraltar’s constitutional documents.

The issue drew multiple questions from MPs, with some even expressing surprise that legislation passed in the Commons could – potentially at least - impact Gibraltar, and others saying they would not contemplate doing that.

“But you could,” Mr Picardo said. “That's the point, that you have the power.”

And he later added: “In my view, the time has come for the United Kingdom to seize the day and consolidate pax Britannica across British citizens around the world and make them all equal.”

“British citizens with the same right to representation in Westminster, in one or both of the chambers, but in a way that doesn't erode the right to manage the business of the territories in which each are resident under the constitution, such as they may be of each of the territories in which they might reside.”

The proposition did not appear to sit well with some MPs.

Conservative MP Nigel Mills said Gibraltar’s written submission to the committee was “…the ‘have your cake and eat it’ option of wanting an MP for a constituency that's about a third the size of most of our constituencies, and at the same time wanting to change the rules so this Parliament couldn’t legislate for all your domestic affairs.”

“I mean, that's quite an ask, isn't it?” Mr Mills said.

“We want an MP and we want to stop them having an influence over our own affairs.”

“I mean, isn't that a little bit excessive to ask for that?”

But Mr Picardo replied that when the UK embarked on devolution, it had “opened Pandora’s box” with a situation in which devolved territories had Westminster representation as well as their own parliaments, making decisions for themselves in areas different to Gibraltar, and with different-sized constituencies for elections to the devolved parliaments.

“And if you're asking us whether we think we, as British citizens resident on British soil, should be represented in the mother of all parliaments that retains the right to determine issues as existentially important to Gibraltar as external relations, defence and internal security, well, frankly, the only answer you're going to get is yes,” the Chief Minister said.

“And if you ask us the question, don't expect us to say anything other than yes.”

“We didn't volunteer this. You actually asked us the question.”

Mr Picardo acknowledged that there was consultation between the UK and Gibraltar governments whenever necessary.

But he said consultation “does not require agreement” and that the UK could, in theory at least, disagree and disregard Gibraltar’s views, risking a “constitutional conflict”.

“You would impose your legislation through what we would call direct rule, and that would be contrary to the interest of the relationship between Gibraltar and the United Kingdom government, indeed, between Gibraltar and the United Kingdom parliament, and would be contrary to the convention that people should be governed by the governments that they elect,” he said.

The Chief Minister was careful to stress during the exchange that Gibraltar and the UK enjoyed a “very close” relationship and that the Gibraltar Government’s submissions were in response to the committee’s request for input into its inquiry.

“Of course, these are hypotheticals,” he said.

“The relationship between the government of Gibraltar and the United Kingdom is very close and we’re simply exploring academic hypotheticals here.”

There was discussion too of how any Westminster representation for Gibraltar and the other OTs would work in practice, be it in the Commons or the House of Lords.

Mr Picardo acknowledged that “whether it's the red benches or the green benches, I think the problems are equally difficult”, but that devolution had shown complex issues of this nature could be tackled.

Earlier in the session, the Chief Minister reflected how, even now, unrelated developments were creating “layers of representation” in the UK Parliament that affected some Gibraltarians but not others.

The UK, for example, recently announced that British citizens who have voted previously in the UK would be able to vote in British parliamentary elections even if they lived abroad.

That means that 7,500 Gibraltarians who have graduated through the grant scheme could exercise that right if they voted in the past.

The Chief Minister revealed he was in that number and had that same day registered to vote in the forthcoming UK general election.

“They will be able to vote,” he said.

“That's one third of our electorate.”

“So if you're a graduate, you'll be able to vote in the British parliamentary election.”

“If you're not, unless you've moved to the United Kingdom for another reason, you won't be able to.”

“So now, this new system is going to create even more layers of representation in the British Parliament for individuals who will be able to vote who are British, and some who will not be able to vote even though they're British.”

Mr Picardo added “there shouldn't be a slicing and dicing of who enjoys that right”.