Jim Allister

If it were possible, one could almost feel sorry for the Minister. This is the Minister who, during previous stages of the Bill, batted away every criticism by telling us, “Oh, but the Americans support this deal.” He gleefully told us that they were our strongest and most important ally, and if they were enthusiastic and supportive of the Bill, what was the problem? Today, the emperor has no clothes. The President of the United States has talked about the great stupidity of this deal. He describes a country giving away its own sovereignty as “an act of GREAT STUPIDITY”. Today the Minister has been forced into some indelicate gymnastics, as he tries to deal with the fact that the peg on which he hung all his defences has snapped out of place. The Minister’s gymnastics have been equally on display when it comes to dealing with his party’s manifesto. Contrary to what he says, it is very clear that when the manifesto declares that Labour will always “defend… sovereignty and right to self-determination”, it is referring not only to Gibraltar and the Falklands, but to all British overseas territories and Crown dependencies. It says “including the Falklands and Gibraltar”, but not “exclusively the Falklands and Gibraltar”.