Gibraltar not joining Schengen free travel area under deal with EU, says Lammy
In a statement on the agreement, Mr Lammy said: 'Residents of Gibraltar and residents of nearby Spanish communities will be able to go about their daily lives as they have done before.
'For those arriving by air into Gibraltar's airport, there will be a dual border control check, in a model similar to French police operating in London St Pancras station.
'Ignore the fake news, Gibraltar will not be joining Schengen. This was never on the table. Immigration, policing and justice in Gibraltar will remain the responsibilities of Gibraltar's authorities.
'For products entering Gibraltar across its land border, there will be a unique goods and customs model, avoiding the need for onerous checks at the border.
The agreement on a 'fluid border' will allow travellers to cross by land without checks (Simon Galloway/PA)
'And with this pragmatic solution, flights will be able to operate from Gibraltar airport to across Europe, driving growth and jobs for the people of Gibraltar.
'This Government is showing that a pragmatic, positive relationship with the European Union pays off for the British public.'
The move could also see airlines start to add flights to Gibraltar from countries other than the UK in a boost to tourism.
Officials say a hard border would have been introduced under the EU's incoming exit and entry control system if no deal was reached, causing delays for some 15,000 people who cross the border every day as every individual passport was checked.
Talks on rules governing the border have been ongoing since Britain left the European Union in 2020.
An agreement for the future relationship between the EU and the UK in relation to Gibraltar is now a reality.
It is a historic agreement. pic.twitter.com/vN9tzDpe4r
— Fabian Picardo (@FabianPicardo) June 11, 2025
Conservative former minister Dame Harriett Baldwin asked: 'Can a British citizen flying from the UK to Gibraltar now be stopped by a Spanish official as they land?'
Mr Lammy replied: 'There will be a second line queue, as there is in St Pancras, and there will be Spanish border guards and police situated in that second line.
'And of course, if there was an alert, then at that point, not on their own, but at that point, there would be a hand-back facility with the Gibraltar police, so they are working alongside that Spanish team.
'And if there was an alert, then the individual would have a right to legal advice. They would be either be able to return to their country of origin, let's say the UK, or they would be able to voluntarily go over to Spain to face the questions they are facing.'
Deputy leader of Reform UK Richard Tice pressed the minister on whether Spanish border officials 'have an effective veto on the entry of a British citizen from the United Kingdom landing on British sovereign territory in Gibraltar'.
Shadow foreign secretary Dame Priti Patel urged the Government to 'safeguard our defence and interest' (Victoria Jones/PA)
Mr Lammy said if Mr Tice flew to Gibraltar and there was an alert in the Schengen system 'he would be handed back to the Gibraltarians, where he might feel more comfortable'.
'He will be able to access his rights and the legal system that he says he feels comfortable with, which is ours, and he would be able to return to the United Kingdom, where no doubt the Spanish would seek to extradite him, and many in this House would be rather pleased,' he said.
Shadow foreign secretary Dame Priti Patel urged the Government to 'safeguard our defence and interest' and maintain operations of the UK's military facilities.
Gibraltar's airport is run by the Ministry of Defence and hosts an RAF base. The overseas territory also has an important naval facility.
Dame Priti said: 'Can he confirm that nothing will be agreed that infringes on our ability to operate the base? And will members of our armed forces be able to access Gibraltar without needing Schengen checks?'
She continued: 'Our principles have been that nothing compromises or infringes on the sovereignty and constitutional arrangements of Gibraltar, it is to remain British.'
Mr Lammy said he had insisted on a 'sovereignty clause' in the treaty, after both the UK and Gibraltar governments insisted the changes would not affect the British overseas territory's sovereignty.
He added: 'On the military base, it will continue to operate as it does today. There will be zero change. It's vital for UK national security, it's protected by this agreement, and that was a red line for us throughout these negotiations.'
Gibraltar was ceded to the UK by Spain in 1713 and the population is heavily in favour of remaining a British overseas territory.
The last time it voted on a proposal to share sovereignty with Spain, in 2002, almost 99% of Gibraltarians rejected the move.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
STV News
19 minutes ago
- STV News
Scots tourist dies in cruise ship pool while docked in Naples
A Scottish tourist has been found dead in a pool on board a cruise ship docked in Naples. Marella Cruises, who work with TUI, confirmed on Wednesday that a passenger on board the Marella Voyage had died from natural causes. The ship was docked in the port of Naples when an 83-year-old man was found unresponsive in the pool, as reported by Italian news site Cronache della Campania. The Marella Voyager left Majorca on August 16 before stops at Olbia in Sardinia, Naples, Rome, Ajaccio in Corsica, Palamos in Spain, and a return to Majorca. A spokesperson for the company said: 'We can confirm that sadly a passenger passed away of natural causes onboard Marella Voyager. 'Our thoughts are with the passenger's family during this difficult time, and our care team is providing assistance.' An FCDO Spokesperson said: 'We are supporting the family of a British man who died in Italy.' Get all the latest news from around the country Follow STV News Scan the QR code on your mobile device for all the latest news from around the country
Western Telegraph
36 minutes ago
- Western Telegraph
Former Salmond staffer rejects Sturgeon claims in book as ‘obviously false'
Geoff Aberdein, who worked for Mr Salmond when he was first minister, hit out at Ms Sturgeon, saying: 'I was brought up that you didn't speak ill of the dead. 'But I think if you're going to speak ill of the dead, at least make your claims accurate.' Former first minister Nicola Sturgeon with her memoir, Frankly, which was published last week (Jane Barlow/PA) He told the Holyrood Sources podcast that Mr Salmond's widow Moira was 'particularly upset and frustrated at a lot of what has been said' about her late husband, who died suddenly in October 2024. Mr Aberdein continued: 'I think it was important to set out and correct the record not just because Alex is not in position to defend himself, but for myself as well and the series of other officials and civil servants that have contacted me.' Claims that Mr Salmond was the person who leaked the story of the sexual harassment allegations against him are 'obviously false', Mr Aberdein insisted. He said that when his former boss took the phone call to say the story about the allegations was being published by the Daily Record he was actually meeting lawyers to 'draft a legal summons to prevent Nicola Sturgeon's Government from making the allegations public'. Mr Aberdeen said: 'To suggest Alex was simultaneously leaking documents deeply damaging to his reputation whilst at the same time paying lawyers a lot of money to get a court order to prevent publication of the same material is just utterly absurd.' Mr Salmond went on to be acquitted of all the charges against him in a court case in 2020. Mr Aberdein also dismissed claims by Ms Sturgeon that Mr Salmond 'didn't read' the white paper on independence which had been produced by the Scottish government in the run up to the 2014 referendum. In her recently published memoir, Frankly, Ms Sturgeon spoke out about her 'cold fury' with her former leader over his 'abdication of responsibility' on the key document. Mr Aberdein – who said he would not be reading the book – accepted that his former boss 'delegated the responsibility for drafting the white paper to Nicola Sturgeon'. Mr Aberdein said he wanted to 'correct the record' following comments made about his former boss, Alex Salmond (Andrew Milligan/PA) However he insisted: 'To suggest, as I think was the purpose of this story, that he wasn't engaged in the process of a prospectus for independence is utterly nonsense. The former Salmond chief of staff also rejected claims that Mr Salmond was 'apparently against same-sex marriage' – saying that this was 'demonstrably false'. Mr Aberdein told the podcast Mr Salmond had 'declared his personal support for gay marriage for the first time' in a newspaper article in April 2011. And he added that while the SNP election manifesto that year had pledged to consult on the issue Mr Salmond 'chose to come out… excuse the pun, the turn of phrase, ahead of that result, to say that he personally supported it.' With the SNP having won the 2011 Holyrood election, Mr Aberdein recalled 'being in the room with advisors, civil servants and indeed ministers about how we would go about reassuring different sections of our society about that legislation, particularly religious leaders and other civic leaders'. He also made the 'obvious point' that 'if Alex Salmond didn't want legislation to be progressed, he was the first minister of a majority SNP government, it wouldn't have been progressed'. Mr Aberdeen said: 'The point falls down on that alone.'
Telegraph
an hour ago
- Telegraph
I know the Home Office is hiding the real costs of asylum
Our immigration system sometimes feels like an organised conspiracy against the British people. For decades, the public have voted for drastic reductions in immigration, only to see the numbers go up and up. For years, they have demanded an end to the Channel crossings and the asylum crisis, only to see politicians refuse to do what is necessary. When governments do move in the right direction, they are undermined by weak enforcement, litigious and often publicly-funded NGOs, activist judges who are often former claimant lawyers in the immigration tribunals, and human rights laws that make securing the border an impossible job. Not that governments should be let off the hook: ultimately our constitution allows Parliament to change the law. The last Conservative government had the right idea to stop the Channel crossings. Deporting every migrant coming to Britain without permission – to their home country or a third country like Rwanda – is ultimately the only way to end this wave of illegal immigration. But the plan was never going to work unless we left the European Convention on Human Rights, and that government – with exceptions like Robert Jenrick, who resigned for this reason as immigration minister – was unwilling to go that far. Immigration is the biggest single reason my party is in the predicament it is in, and we must be brutally honest about our record and radical in our solutions if we are ever to win back the trust of the British people. Labour's approach, however, is even worse. They abandoned the policy of deporting migrants who cross the Channel and are now rushing illegal immigrants through the asylum system. Approvals are up, and once asylum is granted, the migrants are hidden in the social housing and welfare systems, where it is impossible to track their costs. The Office for Budget Responsibility calculates that the average 'low-wage migrant worker' arriving aged 25 will cost the British taxpayer over £400,000 by the time they reach 81. Ministers muddy the waters by claiming they are deporting record numbers of people. But this is dishonest. First, the numbers they use include migrants who leave voluntarily. And second, only about three per cent of Channel crossers are ever removed. It's no surprise that Channel crossings are up – by almost 50 per cent – under Labour. And the court injunction won by the Conservative council in Epping, which stops a local hotel being used to house migrants, throws the Government's policy into further chaos. But while the injunction is undoubtedly a clear victory for the local residents – vilified as 'far Right' by those who should know better – it may yet mean more trouble for communities affected by 'asylum dispersal'. Those hoping for a policy of detention and deportation will soon be disappointed. Human rights laws can prevent deportation, and Labour reject automatic deportation for those who cross the Channel. So the migrants will still end up housed in towns and cities across the country. There are already more than twice as many migrants in private housing, including houses of multiple occupancy, than in hotels. And accommodation like this may suit a government as cynical as this one better than hotels. Individual houses provide less of a focal point for protest than hotels, and the Home Office, working with Serco, has been building up its property portfolio for some time. With 1.33 million people on local waiting lists for social housing, this is a serious breach of the fundamental deal offered by citizenship. Foreign nationals – who broke into our country knowing it was illegal – are being offered housing that is not available to British families in need. And the unfortunate residents who live nearby are very deliberately kept in the dark. As an MP elected last year, I have been horrified by the secrecy with which ministers handle housing migrants. When I asked why MPs are not informed about migrants being moved into their constituencies, the immigration minister said we would only be told when it is 'lawful, proportional and necessary.' In other words: never. After the disorder last year, we learnt from press leaks that an internal government paper had said asylum hotels had 'stoked community tensions' and were a 'critical factor behind the summer riots.' Yet when I used the Freedom of Information Act to request a copy of the paper, the Government said while the information was held, it would not be released because ministers needed a 'safe space' to think about policy. The truth is that Labour's immigration policy means surrender and secrecy. The illegal immigrants crossing the Channel will keep on coming, Labour will keep granting them asylum, and ministers will do everything to keep the consequences – for housing, for crime, for the cost to the taxpayer – a secret from you.
