David Cameron is set for a showdown with MPs on Monday over treaty for Gibraltar amid criticism that promise to ‘take back control’ has failed
The Brexiteer promise of stronger sovereignty has failed and is instead leading to a loss of control of British territories, MPs have warned.
The claim has come ahead of a showdown on Monday between David Cameron and members of the Commons European scrutiny committee over a planned treaty for Gibraltar.
The governments of Gibraltar and the UK are close to agreeing a treaty that some fear will see EU Frontex border guards decide who can enter the British overseas territory – and will give them the power to turn away British citizens.
Added to that, with the threat that Gibraltar could become subject to Schengen area rules, there are now concerns that UK citizens will only be allowed to stay for 90 days on “the Rock” even though it is a British overseas territory.
Gibraltar has been a British territory since it was handed to the UK in the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, part of a series of agreements that ended the war of the Spanish succession. Spain, though, has long disputed the land on which the RAF Gibraltar air force station is situated, claiming it was part of an illegal landgrab by the British in the 19th century. Spain has been pushing to regain control of the territory for decades.
But there are wider concerns about this treaty with the EU, because of implications of a dilution of British sovereignty in areas such as Northern Ireland and even potentially the UK bases in Cyprus, where pressure is mounting over land that is British sovereign territory.
Talks on the draft treaty took place on Thursday, but MPs on the committee had already written to Lord Cameron demanding answers to a list of questions following evidence sessions with foreign minister David Rutley and Gibraltar’s chief minister Fabian Picardo.
DUP committee member Sammy Wilson, who supported Brexit, told The Independent: “Brexit was supposed to be about taking back control. It is proving to be the opposite.”
He blamed “this pathetic [Tory] government” for the problems, describing it as “a joke”.
Mr Wilson is already angered by developments surrounding the border with Northern Ireland, which last week saw the High Court rule that British immigration policy no longer applies there.
He said: “Already we are seeing goods being turned away at the border on the instructions of EU officials, and new border controls being built to EU designs.”