Mr David Lammy

I am grateful to the shadow Foreign Secretary for the tone of her remarks. She is absolutely right to pay tribute to Fabian Picardo, the Chief Minister of Gibraltar, who has been fantastic to work with throughout this. As I said to him, nothing about Gibraltar without Gibraltar. He has been in the room every time that talks have been conducted. I am grateful to previous Foreign Secretaries for the briefing that they gave me in office. May I be clear that the military base will continue to operate as it does today? There will be zero change. It is vital for UK national security, and it is protected by this agreement. That was a red line for us throughout the negotiations. The right hon. Lady asks whether the arrangement changed with the change of government. On the red lines that were set out by the Gibraltar Government, the answer is no. The only thing that changed was that I insisted that there was a sovereignty clause, which she will see when the treaty is published. The right hon. Lady asks how quickly we will be able to share the treaty. We hope to do so as quickly as possible. She will recognise that there is a lot of technical detail. Work is ongoing with lawyers to draft the treaty, and between the European Union and Spain to ensure that the language in it is aligned, but we will get to that point as quickly as we can. The right hon. Lady asks about parliamentary scrutiny. I assure her that we will follow the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act process, as is right. Parliament will be able fully to scrutinise the treaty, and to debate the terms of the treaty if it wishes, as she would expect. The right hon. Lady asks about Schengen. As I said in the statement, this was never on the table. I give her the assurance that immigration, policing and justice in Gibraltar will remain the responsibility of the Gibraltar authorities. The right hon. Lady asks about VAT. I assure her that Gibraltar will not be applying VAT and will maintain its fiscal sovereignty. The right hon. Lady asks about the 90-day rule. Because there will, in effect, now not be checks at the land border, it is right that Gibraltarians can come and stay as long as they want. But for those who are travelling into Gibraltar from Spain, or those who are arriving in Gibraltar at the airport, I can confirm that the 90-day rule will apply across both Gibraltar and Spain. I recognise that these questions touch on the issues that dominated this House following the decision to leave the European Union, which was, of course, a decision that divided the nation. But this moment, this deal and this arrangement, for which Gibraltar was in the room, represent a conclusion to that period. I am very grateful for the tone that the Official Opposition have taken.