Spain Tells U.K. to Keep Its Cool After Falklands Comparison
- Former Conservative leader says May would go to war over rock
- May’s spokesman says naval task force ‘isn’t going to happen’
Gibraltar Dispute Puts Brexit Tensions on Display
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Spanish Foreign Minister Alfonso Dastis moved to calm a diplomatic spat with the U.K. over the status of Gibraltar after a weekend of heated rhetoric that culminated in a suggestion Britain could go to war over the territory.
The flashpoint came on Sunday when Michael Howard, who led the Conservative Party from 2003 to 2005, made a comparison between the tussle with Spain and the 1982 Falklands War between the U.K. and Argentina. He repeated the implied threat in subsequent interviews, telling Channel 4 that “I can see no harm in reminding them what kind of people we are.”