Gibraltar

Tony Blair 'agreed to deal' for Gib

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It is being reported that former Prime Minister Tony Blair agreed to a secret deal to hand joint sovereignty of Gibraltar to Spain.

The Daily Mail claims he struck the deal with the Spanish government in 2002 to end the UK's 300-year control of the vital strategic outpost.

The newspaper attributes the claim to the memoirs of former Labour cabinet minister Peter Hain.

It says the former Europe Minister revealed Mr Blair sanctioned the deal because he wanted to win the backing of the Spanish government, to help Britain take on France and Germany in EU negotiations.

The agreement was only shelved when what he called 'hardliners' in the Spanish government – who wanted only full sovereignty – objected.

In Outside In, published yesterday, Mr Hain says he joined forces with then Foreign Secretary Jack Straw to make private overtures to Spain during 2001.

Mr Hain and his Spanish counterparts looked at an 'Andorra solution' which would have seen co-sovereignty between the UK and Spain.

According to the paper, in February 2002, Mr Hain says he was given the green light by Mr Blair to proceed.

He quotes Mr Blair as saying: 'It is really important to get a better future for Gibraltar, to secure a better relationship with Spain and to remove it as an obstruction to our relations within Europe.'

A spokesman for Mr Blair said: 'Tony Blair has never said or thought Gibraltar should be “run by Spain”. Nor was he “contemptuous” of it.'