Aug 24 – GSD: Picardo “Must Take Full Responsibility” For Existential Threats
The GSD says it notes the statement made by the Chief Minister, Fabian Picardo, on the BBC4 “Today” programme on Saturday morning that a “hard Brexit” would pose “an existential threat to Gibraltar’s current economic model”.
The party says that the Chief Minister has known, and all of us have known, about the EU referendum for the last three years, with a hard Brexit being a possible consequence. Despite knowing that, the Opposition says that Mr. Picardo and his GSLP/Liberal Government, in that period, “have embarked on and undertaken the largest spending spree funded in the main by debt in the history of Gibraltar and have increased recurrent expenditure massively, recklessly gambling Gibraltar’s financial well being on Brexit not being the referendum result.”
The party says that the Government has spent £750 million in capital projects in four years and that the combined debt of the Government and Government owned companies now exceeds £1.1 Billion. The GSD argues that such a level of spending and debt in any circumstances would “not have been prudent” but that to have done so at a time when the Government knew that our community could face an “existential threat” to its economy from a potential Brexit has been “downright reckless.”
Daniel Feetham, the Leader of the Opposition said: “Every Government that has known how to administer the affairs of this community in a safe and secure manner has always understood that our economic strength underpins our political strength in the face of potential decisions by the United Kingdom Government but more crucially in relation to Spain. These high levels of debt resulting from excessive spending and incursion of more recurrent expenditure magnify the existential threats posed by Brexit to our social, political and constitutional model. Mr. Picardo must take the full responsibility for that.”
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