Govt says three 'authoritative' legal opinions confirm no concessions on sovereignty

The Government says it has obtained three authoritative legal opinions that the UK-EU treaty “makes no concessions of legal sovereignty to Spain, ro any other entity, over Gibraltar”.

Number Six says these include an opinion from Lord David Pannick KC, of Blackstone Chambers, and also a cross-bench member of the House of Lords. Mr Pannick is a highly-regarded advocate, who has advised UK Prime Ministers and Home Secretaries. The other two are from former Chief Minister, Sir Peter Caruana KC, and from Jamie Trinidad KC, the Government’s principal adviser on international law.

The Government says this confirms its analysis, as well as that of the Attorney General, and of the UK Government. It says the Chief Minister will refer to these opinions in the debate in Parliament on the ratification of the treaty.

Meanwhile, this weekend, Fabian Picardo has also argued the case for the treaty online. On social media, he responded to former Home Secretary Suella Braverman, who had posted that the UK had “ceded control of Gibraltar to Spain”, leaving it “now British in name only”. Mr Picardo said Mrs Braverman was misleadingly and selectively quoting a complex negotiation largely negotiated by the administration of which she had formed part – and called on her to “stop playing politics with the people of Gibraltar whose future YOU and your ilk put in great jeopardy with Brexit”.