Lord Callanan (Con)

I am grateful to the Minister for giving the House the opportunity to ask questions on this Statement. I should begin by saying that the Official Opposition welcome the fact that the Government of Gibraltar have been at the table throughout these negotiations. Gibraltar is British. The Government tell us that sovereignty was never on the table throughout these negotiations, and it never should be. I only wish they were consistent in their application of this approach to other treaties. This treaty runs to more than 1,000 pages and, of course, we need time carefully to consider the detail. I thank the Minister and his colleagues for ensuring the publication of the treaty in draft. This has allowed us to begin the process of scrutiny early. Can the Minister say when the treaty will be laid formally so that we can plan for the CRaG process that will follow? When we went through the CRaG process for the 2025 UK-Mauritius treaty, the Government failed to follow the Ponsonby rule, which established the convention that the Government will allow a debate on a substantive Motion in respect of treaty ratification where a formal request is made by the Official Opposition. Can the Minister confirm whether the Government will follow the convention if a request is received in respect of this treaty? On a connected scrutiny point, can the Minister say whether domestic legislation will also be needed before we proceed to ratification? If so, when will that be laid before the House? As the Minister knows, we have been critical of the Government’s sequencing of the agreements in respect to the UK-Mauritius treaty and the Bill, so can he say whether the Government are aware of any extant and binding treaties in respect of Gibraltar that may be in tension with the terms of the draft treaty that has now been agreed with the EU? I turn from process to the practicalities of the treaty. Can the Minister please set out the steps that will be taken under the treaty to protect the rights of British citizens freely to visit Gibraltar? We know that dual passport checks will be undertaken at the airport in Gibraltar. What recourse will a citizen have in circumstances where Spanish border control and British border control are in disagreement on a person’s admission to what will remain British territory? Can he say what oversight UK authorities will have over the activities of the Spanish border control operations in Gibraltar? What is the process for dispute resolution? Ministers know that we on these Benches have profound concerns about the process of dynamic alignment. We must not be rule-takers. How will dynamic alignment operate under this treaty? How will Gibraltar and the UK avoid becoming subject to ongoing EU rule-taking without meaningful political control? Can the Minister confirm that Gibraltar and not EU politicians will decide on her own future? When the Minister in the other place was asked about Article 25 and its reference to the ECHR, he said that “we comply with the ECHR, as does Gibraltar and, indeed, Spain and the EU. We do not shy away from that”.—[Official Report, 26/2/26; col. 489.] That is, obviously, a statement of the status quo, but can the Minister please explain what the status of Article 25 would be if the UK were to withdraw from the ECHR? Would an amendment to the treaty need to be agreed with the EU at that point or could the UK derogate from Article 25 unilaterally? Finally, on a point of fairness, this treaty appears to create an imbalance in the treatment of EU citizens and UK citizens. An EU national may have free access to Gibraltar through the land border without any restrictions whatever, but a British national travelling from the UK could potentially be banned from entering at the airport by Spanish border control guards. These are challenging issues, and we understand why compromise can be necessary, but could the Minister please set out the work that he is doing to ensure that UK citizens continue to have smooth and free access to Gibraltar, which is, after all, still a British territory? I look forward to the Minister’s reply to these questions.