No reason to lose cool over Gibraltar - Spain's foreign minister

Spain’s foreign minister Alfonso Dastis has said there was "no reason" for the aggressive comments made by former government minister Michael Howard at the weekend, where he suggested Britain would be prepared to go to war to protect its control of Gibraltar.

Britain and Spain have engaged in centuries of squabbling over the territorial status of 'the rock', with Gibraltar voting overwhelmingly to remain part of the EU in last June’s referendum, where a slim majority of Britons voted to leave.

"I think someone in the UK is losing their cool and there is no reason for it," Dastis told the Spanish press at an event in Madrid.

Howard made a comparison with Britain’s conflict with Argentina related to the Falkland Islands, suggesting Theresa May would follow the example of Margaret Thatcher if she felt there was a threat to the territory after Brexit.

"Thirty-five years ago this week, another woman prime minister sent a taskforce halfway across the world to defend the freedom of another small group of British people against another Spanish-speaking country, and I’m absolutely certain that our current prime minister will show the same resolve in standing by the people of Gibraltar," Howard told Sky News on Sunday.

Dastis said that the Spanish government was "a little surprised" by comments made by those in the Conservative Party, considering Britain is "a country known for its composure."

Downing Street on Monday said the British government would “never enter into arrangements under which the people of Gibraltar would pass under the sovereignty of another state against their freely and democratically expressed wishes”.

According to the negotiating guidelines released by the EU on Friday, if Spain is not content with the status of Gibraltar, it will retain the right to exclude it from the free trade system.

Spain has long-held ambitions to reclaim the island, which lies a short ferry ride off the southern coast of the Iberian peninsular, after its cessation from the country in 1713 as part of the Treaty of Utrecht.

Senior EU diplomats told the Guardian newspaper that the EU will not soften its position on the issue in the coming weeks, with Spain having exerted considerable diplomatic effort to gain full support among the other 26 member states on the issue. “Spain are taking this very, very seriously,” one diplomat said.