Gibraltar: Spanish ship chased out of British waters

Britain's row with Spain over Gibraltar's sovereignty continued yesterday when the Royal Navy chased a Spanish ship out of UK territorial waters.

A spokeswoman for the government of Gibraltar confirmed an "illegal incursion" had been met by HMS Scimitar from the Royal Navy's Gibraltar Squadron.

She would not say whether the territory would make a formal protest over the incident.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

"The status of the waters around Gibraltar continues to be debated," says The Independent.

Spain says the UK can claim only "The Rock" and not the surrounding water, while Gibraltar believes it owns the adjoining sea.

This has led to a number of flare-ups over the years, when either the Spanish military or tourist vessels have entered the waters.

On Sunday, after the European Union appeared to support Spain's claim to the territory, former Conservative leader Michael Howard suggested that Theresa May could go to war to protect the strategic enclave, an opinion that drew both ridicule and consternation from Spain and other EU countries.

The Gibraltarian spokeswoman said yesterday's incident was "a timely demonstration of the way in which Spain routinely conducts itself in breach of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea... almost as if Lord Howard has unnerved someone senior in the Spanish Navy."