The British ambassador to Spain, Hugh Elliott, was at the centre of a major political storm on Monday morning after it was revealed that he was "bullied" by former Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab over an alleged Gibraltar deal. One of the top complaints against Raab upheld by the investigation into the ex-Deputy Prime Minister behaviour centred on talks by a British ambassador to Spain over an alleged secret deal over Gibraltar.
According to the Daily Express, Adam Tolley QC found that Raab, who resigned in a hard-hitting letter to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, acted in an "unreasonably and persistently aggressive" way towards Hugh Elliott, the British Ambassador to Spain.
The Daily Telegraph reported that the bullying is said to have followed secret proposals to put Spanish boots on the ground in Gibraltar during Brexit talks in 2020. It says that allies of Raab have claimed Elliott went beyond the Cabinet-agreed position to never have Spanish officers permanently stationed in the British overseas territory.
This morning on Sky News, former British minister Jacob Rees-Mogg rounded on Elliott saying that British ambassadors needed to have a backbone.
The alleged deal over Gibraltar is said to involve Spanish officials policing the border and the airport so that the "Rock" could remain part of the Schengen Agreement on European free travel.