Five years after Brexit, the Rock’s still in a hard place

The future of Gibraltar is being decided by long, tense treaty negotiations with the UK, Spain and EU. Sarah Sands visits to see what is at stake for the strategic port and its residents

- Sarah Sands

As our plane approaches Gibraltar, the British Airways pilot announces that there is a southwesterly breeze, which is in fact a warning. It means very strong cross winds that can then lead to the phrase you least want to hear: “Divert to Malaga.” A Spanish landing over the border puts hours on the journey. When our captain makes a second attempt with a bracing landing on the short Gibraltar runway and a bone-shaking reverse thrust, he gets a round of applause. I ask a Gibraltarian passenger if they had thought of making the runway longer and they sigh. Everything comes back to territory.

The 18th-century traveller and antiquarian Francis Carter wrote: “The shape and face of Gibraltar Rock is neither promising nor pleasing and it is as barren as uncouth, not a tree or a shrub hardly to be seen on it above the town … On casting an eye up this barren hill, one would not imagine any living creature could exist upon it.”

And yet it is fiercely loved by Gibraltarians of different races and faiths, united by British passports, who have been waiting five years to hear the outcome of a new treaty which is still yet to be signed.

Gibraltar is British but the waters surrounding it are disputed. Usually, a nation would claim 12 miles from land but the UK makes do with three, because 12 across the bay takes you pretty much to the Spanish coast. Air space is also contentious. British military planes are not permitted to fly over Spanish air space, although Spain is a Nato ally, and those taking off from Gibraltar perform an immediate sharp turn to keep within the bay. Then there is the disputed status of the isthmus, the road between Spain and Gibraltar which includes the runway.