Gibraltar

HC Deb 27 March 1974 vol 871 cc439-40

14. Mr. Greville Janner

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will pay an official visit to Gibraltar.

Mr. Hattersley

My right hon. Friend has no plans to do so at present but would not wish to rule it out later if a suitable opportunity arose.

Mr. Janner

Will my hon. Friend confirm that the Government have no intention of ditching the people of Gibraltar by changing its status in any way contrary to their wishes?

Mr. Hattersley

My hon. and learned Friend will recall the Gibraltar Constitution Order of 1969, prepared and approved under the same Prime Minister in a different administration. That remains our policy and endorses exactly the point made by my hon. and learned Friend.

Sir Frederic Bennett

Does not the Minister agree, too, that the problem in Gibraltar now is not so much economic as psychological, in the sense of the claustrophobia that is developing there? Should not we look at all possibilities of making it easier both for Gibraltarians to come here on visits and for English people to go there at more reasonable cost than is possible today? Does not the hon. Gentleman agree that the Gibraltarians are locked up in a very small area and that in that context they need assistance?

Mr. Hattersley

I share the hon. Gentleman's view in principle about the feeling of claustrophobia felt by the people in Gibraltar. I hope that that feeling may soon be overcome. But the initiative to overcome that feeling rests largely with the Spanish Government, who are in a position to make progress along those lines. I hope that the Spanish Government will learn what the hon. Gentleman has said, and the Government's attitude to the matter, and make a reduction in claustrophobia possible.