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Hello, I'm Sean Caren, and this is yesterday in Parliament from BBC Radio 4.

On Thursday, the 12th of June, the Foreign Secretary David Lammy told MPs

that Britain's commitment to Gibraltar was as solid as the rock itself.

He was updating the Commons about a deal that the UK has

agreed with the European Union over Gibraltar's status following Brexit. It had been

standing room only in the Commons when the Chancellor Rachel Reeve set out her spending plans

for the next few years, but the Foreign Secretary attracted a much smaller audience of MPs

when he arrived 24 hours later to celebrate the agreement between the UK and the EU. David Lammy

said plans for a new EU entry exit system had threatened to introduce a hard border between the

British territory and Spain.

Every individual passport checked, every British good heading for Gibraltar's supermarket shell,

subject to time, consuming custom checks, chaos and backlogs,

endangering the livelihoods of British citizens in Gibraltar,

wrecking the territory's economy and possibly costing hundreds of millions of pounds a year. He said the deal meant there would be a fluid

border, with people and goods moving back and forth without checks. The Conservative shadow

foreign secretary Dame Pretty Patel said her party would always defend British sovereignty and the rights of Gibraltar.

This negotiating process has been frustrated by Spain, who, as we know, blocked these issues being resolved through the Brexit negotiations.

His Majesty's opposition will judge the deal agreed on whether it meets the aims and objectives that we outlined in government which are brought her, and once we see the full details.

David Lamy had paid tribute to his Conservative predecessors who'd worked to unravel the problem in the years following the UK's departure from the European Union.

For the Liberal Democrats, Helen Maguire welcomed the new agreement.

The Conservatives botched deal with Europe left Gibraltar in a state of limbo for years.

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