'Huge democratic disservice' Gibraltar leader calls for second EU referendum

GIBRALTAR'S chief minister has called for a second EU referendum once the terms of Brexit are known.

EU flags/Gibraltar/Fabian PicardoGETTY

EU flags/Gibraltar/Fabian Picardo

Fabian Picardo said it was impossible to know exactly what kind of exit from the EU people envisaged when they voted on June 23 and wants another ballot after Theresa May has struck a deal with Brussels.

He criticised Westminster politicians for dismissing the possibility of a fresh referendum and accused them of a "huge democratic disservice".

And he dismissed claims it was a thinly veiled attempt to "thwart" the people's will as "disingenuous sophistry".

What next for Gibraltar?

Fabian Picardo casts his vote in the EU referendumGETTY

Fabian Picardo casts his vote in the EU referendum

It would be disingenuous sophistry to suggest that is not actually the maximum exercise of the sovereignty of the British people to make the final choice between the two options on the table

Fabian Picardo

Mr Picardo said: "It is asking a different question - it is asking a question which will present people with two certainties.

"In other words, it presents them with option A, which is membership of the EU as it is today known to people, potentially with the renegotiations David Cameron managed to achieve, or B, this new relationship with the EU.

"Nobody can persuade me that putting that deal to the British public, for them to choose between A or B, is in some way to thwart the will of the British public and their vote to leave.

"It would be disingenuous sophistry to suggest that is not actually the maximum exercise of the sovereignty of the British people to make the final choice between the two options on the table."

The Rock of GibraltarGETTY

The Rock of Gibraltar

And he added: "I think those that argue from outside the British government, from UKIP and from the extremes of the Tory party, that that should never be countenanced as something that's put to the British people, are doing themselves a huge democratic disservice."

Known as the Rock, Gibraltar is a British enclave in southern Spain which voted by 96 per cent to stay in the EU. 

Mr Picardo said he wanted Gibraltar to retain a closer relationship with the EU but denied he was seeking Europe 'a la carte'.

He said: "We are prepared to enjoy the whole menu of the four freedoms being applicable to Gibraltar in their entirety and because of our geographic position that is something which is entirely possible."

Fabian PicardoGETTY

Gibraltar's chief minister Fabian Picardo

Mr Picardo is in talks with Scotland and other devolved administrations to try to work up a "reverse Greenland" deal which he hopes will see it retain freedom of movement and single market membership. He insists this "doesn't cut across Mrs May's red line" that all of the UK and Gibraltar are leaving the EU, and would not impede parts of Britain striking a different deal.

He said the one thing that could scupper Gibraltar's ambitions was Spain, whose foreign secretary Jose Manuel Garcia Margallo has aggressively reasserted its claim to the territory, which was ceded to Britain more than 300 years ago, following the referendum outcome.

Within hours of the Brexit vote being declared he announced that the "Spanish flag on the Rock is much closer than it was before" and has put forward his claim for joint sovereignty to the United Nations.

In 2002 Gibraltarians voted by nearly 99 per cent to reject joint sovereignty and Mr Picardo insisted that was a red line for the territory. 

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