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Hello, I'm Susan Hume and this is the yesterday in Parliament podcast.

On Thursday, the 26th of February, there was a cautious welcome for a new treaty on Gibraltar.

There's no doubt countries sometimes come to regret what they agree to in treaties.

313 years ago, Spain ceded Gibraltar to Britain in the Treaty of Utrecht

and has tried off and on over the following centuries to get the peninsula back again.

But announcing the latest treaty, a minister promised he was not changing his tune on sovereignty.

Our commitment to Gibraltar remains as ever, as solid as the rock.

The Foreign Office Minister Stephen Doughty.

British sovereignty over Gibraltar, including British Gibraltar territorial waters, is fully upheld and explicitly protected.

Crucially, Mr Speaker, the United Kingdom's military facilities and operations on the rock

remain under full UK control.

Which would be a relief to Lord Nelson, given the importance of Gibraltar's military base to victory

in the Battle of Trafalgar.

The draft treaty Stephen Doughty was unveiling in the Commons was necessitated by the Brexit vote nearly a decade ago.

That threw Gibraltar's arrangements into doubt and meant checks and barriers for people and goods crossing the border.

Around 15,000 people cross the land border every day between Spain and Gibraltar.

That's half of Gibraltar's workforce.

This treaty removes all checks on people

and goods at that border. Instead, passports and goods would be checked when they arrived from

overseas at Gibraltar's port and airport. The checks will be carried out by both Gibraltar and

by Spanish officials. But the Minister assured MPs that it wasn't any different from the French

...