L

Lord Kerr of Kinlochard (CB)

Speaking in the House of Lords on 17 June 2025

Debate

Gibraltar

Contribution

I agree with the noble Baroness. In fact, I agree with everything she has said, with one exception: she implied that negotiations started under Dominic Raab as Foreign Secretary. I took part in three negotiations over Gibraltar Airport, the first of which was for Foreign Secretary Geoffrey Howe, so the stone in the shoe has been there for a very long time. I think it has been rather elegantly removed. The solution looks to be a very good one. I know that the duty of an Opposition is to oppose—or so it is said—but I thought the Opposition Front Bench spoke slightly ungraciously about the deal. The officials who worked very hard for them on the early stages of this negotiation, particularly Vijay Rangarajan, have not been thanked in the same way that the Foreign Secretary—in my view quite correctly—thanked the officials who had completed the task that Vijay and his colleagues were doing when the Opposition Front Bench spokesman here tonight was their boss.

More from Lord Kerr of Kinlochard (CB)

Other recent Hansard contributions by the same speaker.

About Hansard

Hansard is the official verbatim record of proceedings in the UK Parliament. Every word spoken in the Commons and Lords is recorded and published — this page is a single contribution from that record.

Partner sites