Gibraltar after Brexit: why Spain, not Ireland will decide the UK’s fate

As the date of Britain’s departure from the European Union draws near, you might be forgiven for thinking that the future of UK-EU relations after Brexit hangs on only one thing: resolving the question of what to do with the Irish border. Yet just over the horizon lies a much more serious threat, one that has the potential to cause far greater and more lasting damage.

This is the question of Gibraltar, which encapsulates many of the concerns that will haunt UK-EU relations once Brexit has taken place. It is one of the rare examples of a land border between Britain and the EU, and a site of extensive cross-border movement. Every day, roughly 10,000 Spanish workers travel to Gibraltar (population 33,000) to work, mainly from the Spanish town of La Línea de la Concepción.