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BREXIT

OPINION: Brits relying on funds from the UK are feeling increasingly helpless

Always a popular topic of conversation, discussions about money have been more prominent recently, for all the wrong reasons, writes Sue Wilson of Bremain in Spain.

OPINION: Brits relying on funds from the UK are feeling increasingly helpless
Photo: AFP

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has this week been visiting the four ‘corners’ of the United Kingdom, doling out promises to spend, spend, spend in a futile effort to win support. Judging by the reception he received in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, his offers of financial support for communities and industries, which are currently reliant on EU funding, are not being taken too seriously. The fact that parliament, or even his own government, would be unlikely to sanction such overspending may be a factor at play.

On Thursday August 1st, money was again on the agenda when the new Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sajid Javid, announced the government will spend £2.1 billion in preparation for a no-deal Brexit. Despite frequent claims from the prime minister and the government that no-deal is not their preferred course of action, they seem very keen to convince the country, and the European Parliament, that it is.

The Treasury announced that the money would be spent to “accelerate preparations at the Irish border, support business readiness and ensure the supply of critical medicines”. £138 million alone is to be spent boosting public communications, including a public information campaign, and increased “consular support and information for Brits living abroad”. I’m sure a leaflet will make us all feel better at the prospect of being significantly poorer!

As you might expect, the news of more spending – especially on a damaging no-deal scenario – met with widespread outrage. The CEO of Best for Britain, Naomi Smith, said: “Wasting money like this when we have so many other priorities is exactly why the country has turned against Brexit. We need to stop fixating on it so that we can fix the country.”

Labour MP, David Lammy said it was money: “…wasted on preparing for an entirely avoidable and self-inflicted disaster. Money that should have been spent on schools, hospitals and housing.”

The prospect of spending such obscene amounts of money, when the UK has suffered underspending on an industrial scale for years, has everyone wondering: where is the money coming from? The government openly admits it intends to borrow, borrow, borrow.

All this talk of excess borrowing and spending is particularly galling for British citizens who are suffering from the collapse of the Pound. Sterling is at its lowest level in over two years, with no-deal Brexit only at the discussion stage. How much further might it plummet if the worst-case scenario actually happened?

Brits relying on funds from the UK, especially pensioners and others on low incomes, are feeling understandably helpless. Many are considering how to cut back on their personal expenditure. None of us are in possession of a magic money tree – unlike Westminster, where there’s enough fertiliser for a whole orchard.

There was, however, an unexpected word of comfort from a Brexit Party MEP. Apparently, Sterling’s fall is all down to Remainers and the European Union, and nothing to do with government policy or the pursuit of a hard Brexit. It can easily be fixed if we all stop saying that no-deal will be a disaster and – as Johnson might say – just “believe”!

If Abba’s ‘Dancing Queen’ will be remembered as Theresa May’s theme tune, Boris Johnson’s theme must be ‘Money, Money, Money’. At least, for now. Give it a few weeks, until his government fails, and parliament removes the no-deal threat, and ‘Waterloo’ might be more fitting.  

By Sue Wilson – Chair of Bremain in Spain

READ MORE: British pensioners in France and Spain face more struggle as pound slides to two-year low

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GIBRALTAR

UK soldiers expelled from Spain after crossing from Gibraltar posing as tourists

Spain has expelled four Royal Navy servicemen who crossed the Spain-Gibraltar border on foot three times in a single day while dressed in civilian clothing, with Spanish media claiming they were checking the porosity of the border.

UK soldiers expelled from Spain after crossing from Gibraltar posing as tourists

Spanish police expelled four British soldiers from Spain on Monday night, removing them from the country and sending them back to Gibraltar after it emerged that the four Royal Navy personnel had entered Spain illegally while “posing as tourists”, as the Spanish press has reported.

The incident comes a week after the British Navy carried out military drills in the waters surrounding Gibraltar, the British overseas territory that Spain still claims sovereignty of, and amid the seemingly never-ending negotiations between Spain and the UK to finally settle a post-Brexit deal.

READ ALSO: Gibraltar Brexit deal ‘close’ as Brits crossing into Spain use fake bookings

The expulsions, now reported in the Spanish press by Europa Sur and confirmed to El Periódico de España by official sources, occurred after the four soldiers arrived in Gibraltar on a civilian flight and entered into Spain. They also had return tickets via Gibraltar.

They then reportedly passed themselves off as tourists and entered Spain on foot, staying at a four-star hotel in La Línea de la Concepción, the town in the Cádiz province of Andalusia that borders Gibraltar.

Stranger yet is that they crossed the border at La Línea on up to three occasions in the space of a few hours.

READ ALSO: What Brits need to know before crossing the border from Gibraltar to Spain

Spanish authorities detected their presence because two of the soldiers tried to return to Gibraltar at night.

At the border, Spanish police officers enquired as to the reason for their entry, to which the soldiers replied that they were on their way to work and brandished British military documentation.

The police decided that their entry into Spain had been irregular because they did not meet the Schengen Borders Code requirements demanded of non-EU citizens entering EU territory.

According to Europa Sur, Spanish police then asked the two soldiers to call their colleagues in the hotel in order to collect their luggage and return to Gibraltar, which took place at midnight on Monday 18th March.

The Spanish press has stated that it is common for soldiers to try to stay in Spanish territory by concealing their military status and entering while posing as tourists.

The motive for the soldiers’ presence, particularly their repeated trips across the border, remains unknown.

The military drills in the area seem to suggest that the soldiers may have taken part in or be due to take part in further exercises and wanted to enter as tourists.

Spanish media also suggests that they could have been testing the porosity of the border, though these claims remain unsubstantiated.

Gibraltar’s post-Brexit status still remains unresolved. The EU and UK government are now onto their 18th round of treaty negotiations after the framework agreement between London and Madrid made on New Year’s Eve 2020 essentially ‘fudged’ the border issue, leaving Gibraltar’s status within the Schengen area undefined.

Spain’s Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares said in late-2023 that “we are very, very close” to finalising a Brexit agreement.

“I would sign a deal with Britain over Gibraltar tomorrow,” Albares told journalists at the time. Yet no agreement was made, despite the Minister’s positivity, nor the appointment of former UK Prime Minister David Cameron as Foreign Secretary.

Albares’ comments came at a time when it was reported in the Spanish press that many UK nationals have been using fake hotel bookings in order to try and bypass the Schengen rules and trick their way through border checks.

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