§ 46. Mr. McQuarrieasked the Secretary of State for Defence if he has any plans to meet the Chief Minister of Gibraltar to discuss the defence impact if the Gibraltar dockyard is commercialised in December 1984.
§ Mr. LeeNo. The Government of Gibraltar have no involvement in purely defence matters and, as I explained to my hon. Friend the Member for Rutland and Melton (Mr. Latham) on 1 November—[Vol. 47, c. 730–31]—it is not the dockyard but the naval base that is of strategic importance. This will remain fully operational after the dockyard is commercialised.