Below follows the Leader of the Opposition’s New Year Message:

On behalf of my colleagues and myself I wanted to wish you and your families a happy,  healthy and peaceful 2022.  

This will be a year of some major challenges – whether we can finally secure a safe  and beneficial agreement with the EU on a new relationship; whether we will emerge  from the COVID pandemic and regain our full freedoms; whether we will prosper  economically and emerge from the serious financial crisis we are in; whether our public  services will deliver efficiency when you need to see a doctor, have your housing  problem dealt with or hope your son or daughter finds a job. 

Last Monday the Chief Minister spoke to you for 19 minutes in a long address that was  high on empty calls for unity and low on actual substance. This was a request for  economic solidarity from someone who over the last decade has presided over the  most reckless ratcheting up of public debt ever seen in Gibraltar’s history. This was a  speech from someone who wants support only when the Government has walked us  to the political cliff edge of no deal. This was a protestation for unity from someone  whose way of operating in politics is often one of division, name-calling and the  squashing of any criticism by personalisation. 

Having done all that Mr Picardo’s two basic messages to you were – first – rally round  me in this year of difficulties and don’t criticise me. Secondly – don’t complain to me  that I won’t spend too much money in the future because I have spent a lot in the past. 

But we aren’t here to give Mr Picardo a blank cheque and those basic messages show  that the Chief Minister is both seeking to pull the wool over your eyes and missing the  point. 

After all, the reason we still have uncertainty on whether we will have freedom of  movement [mobility] in Europe or a deal that protects us politically, socially and  economically is because of his Government’s failure in landing a safe and beneficial  deal yet. And surely it cannot be lost on anyone that we are the only part of the British  family that had been in the EU that still does not have a new agreement. How can this  be? 

The UK successfully negotiated a new 1000-page agreement for itself by the end of  the 2020 deadline. Instead, Mr Picardo remarkably proclaimed the failure of a flawed  8-page non-binding Political Framework as a “success” at the end of 2020. And you  were asked then to suspend your belief and still give him a final chance to land a deal 

which would take 6 months – by June last year. We are still waiting.

Mr Picardo did then what he does best – the high drama of convening a press  conference at the shortest of notice creating huge expectations only to announce very  little or dash hopes while at the same time telling you that he has achieved a great  victory. That tactic is wearing thin. 

If we had been so successful then why do we still have no safe and beneficial  Agreement and why are we the only ones in this uncertain position.  

The reality is that we have been warning about lost opportunities in the negotiating process following the BREXIT referendum for some time. At the Withdrawal  Agreement stage in 2018 frontier workers secured freedom of movement and other  rights in Gibraltar but the opportunity was not taken to secure enduring rights for  Gibraltarians or British people resident here.  

Instead, Mr Picardo entered into MOUs with Spain that gave some economic and other  controls away. He also entered into a permanent Tax Treaty by which major economic  and political concessions were made to Spain. One that treats some residents of  Gibraltar as Spanish tax residents even though they actually live here or that subject  some of our companies to the Spanish tax system even when they do all their business  here. That Treaty was harmful and against our interests.  

So while Spain obtained benefits for itself and its workers we languished in the promise  by Mr Picardo that it wasn’t the right time to get our lasting benefits. But when the UK  bagged a permanent deal for itself 2 years later we still didn’t and here we are still  without a permanent agreement and facing continued uncertainty.  

And what of the contents of such a proposed deal itself? Mr Picardo has, so far, been  very restrictive with what he has put in the public domain. While the skimpy Political  Framework was published in December 2020 inevitably there would have to be much  greater detail in any final agreement if it emerges. There are plenty of potential  economic and political trojan horses in the margins and details of the agreement  contemplated by Mr Picardo that could conceivably affect our sovereignty, jurisdiction and control. 

We will all need to judge any deal which is finally put on the table. It would need to be  safe and beneficial. We hope there will be one. But no deal should be entered into  before it is published in draft so there can be full public scrutiny and debate in  Parliament of the proposed deal before it is signed.  

Together with our political future 2022 is also about our economic future. While COVID  has hit the economy hard the reason we are at the financial precipice is because the  Government has put us there after years of racking up a legacy of debt and allowing  huge and reckless expenditure. The public debt of Gibraltar has been tripled. The cost of the public sector has grown tremendously and there has been no semblance of real  control of waste or abuse in public contracts. 

That is why it is so hollow for Mr Picardo to now try to dress himself in the clothes of  responsibility and call for unity having first emptied the Government coffers, showed  no willingness to control expenditure or abuse for a decade and borrowed to the hilt. 

We have been calling for economic prudence and responsibility for years. In successive elections in 2015 and 2019 we have been warning about the economic  policies of the Government and their handling of public finances. In our 2019 manifesto  we had a clear programme of measures to improve accountability and controls of the  spending of your money. 

When Mr Picardo calls for unity around this new so-called culture of responsibility we  view this with deep scepticism because it is his Government that had created a culture  of entitlement and burnt the people’s monies as if there was no tomorrow. 

The deficit is now £51M a year - £1M pounds a week. That is like you having to borrow  money every month just to pay the food bills. Sooner or later that is unsustainable because money borrowed has to be paid back and all Mr Picardo is leaving successive  generations is a legacy of debt, debt, debt. We are running at a loss in a way that has,  in the words of Sir Joe Bossano, never been seen before and is the worst deficit in our  history.  

Judge for yourselves who is to blame for that. It is easy to put the blame on COVID.  But the reality is that we were already neck high in debt [1.2Billion gross debt] before the COVID pandemic arrived. That has cost about £300M so far but we had lost most  of our financial leeway before it arrived on our shores. So when the clouds grew dark  there was little left to borrow and not much in the Bank by way of savings for a really  rainy day. It is now raining hailstones and there is no cash left because Mr Picardo has spent it. Those are realities of the way the Government has handled our finances  – your money. 

It is certainly true that the economic reality of the deficit of £1M a week needs to be  dealt with fast. And there needs to be consistency in the approach. The greater  controls and efficiencies we have been talking about for years now need to be applied. But do we trust Mr Picardo in delivering such a consistent strategy? 

Even though he recognised in his New Year’s Message that on average private sector  salaries are lower than the public sector he still has put further pressure on the private  sector with social insurance hikes that may tip some businesses over and can lead to  the loss of jobs or stall the creation of employment. 

And only a few days ago Sir Joe Bossano was saying that despite the financial crisis  some Government departments are still not keeping to the discipline of their budgets  and that they expect that they will have to find an extra £40M because of the disregard of the budget limits. The political Government – the Ministers – led by the Chief  Minister are responsible for and accountable to you for those further excesses. 

Mr Picardo cannot on the one hand preach responsibility only to then not be able to  keep to his own budget and allow departments to spend £40M more than had been  approved. Certainly not in a crisis year like this one. 

There has to be a real and enduring commitment to value for money and Government  needs to become more efficient with less money. Financial recklessness by the  Government hurts the people who can least afford it – those on insecure private sector  contracts, those on the minimum wage and those who are on the edge of financial  survival every day. The single mother affected by the higher electricity charges. The  small business finding the higher social insurance charges overwhelming in a difficult  year and now feeling under pressure to lay off staff. The worker in a small company  on the minimum wage worried about being laid off.  

So we have the irony that the Government says tighten your belts because it mismanaged your money for 10 years and now may have to increase taxes – in other  words ask you for more money. But do you normally allow someone who has lost your  money a bail out so they can spend more of your money or let them carry on in charge  when they are blowing your life savings? It’s time to stop trusting those who have  handled your money badly for 10 years. 

Of course, COVID hit hard and we do not underestimate that but if they hadn’t been  so reckless for 10 years we would have been better placed to weather the storm. We  aren’t afraid to tighten our collective belts but if there is a need to do so it has been worsened because of Mr Picardo’s policies for a decade. If there is a need to fasten  our seat belts because we are still in political uncertainty it is because Mr Picardo’s  Government has so far failed where the British Government has succeeded only for  itself. 

And to talk only about money or tightening your belt is not only rich coming from the  Government that has put us here financially but shows it also fails to appreciate what  some of the key complaints about public services are and that they don’t need a lot of  money to fix. 

When someone has been on the social or medical priority housing lists for a long time  – sometimes years - then they rightly do not understand why it takes so long to offer  them a house. When mental health patients do not receive calls or follow-ups; when  appointments are cancelled and not restored for weeks; when letters aren’t answered;  when promises aren’t kept; when simple applications for anything – whether they are to amend details in a system or for renewal of ID cards take weeks or months people  rightly cannot understand those failures in services. 

Those issues are not about money. They are about the Government failing to organise  its services, not respecting that it administers resources for the people it serves, not ensuring that it is efficient and not embracing technology fast enough to make those  services work and work more quickly. So when the Chief Minister calls for people to  be understanding in a tough year what is he doing to understand that many complaints  are not about money and need solutions now 

And the lack of money, uncertainty and the breakdown of services is the tip of the  iceberg. This is a Government not just running out of steam; directionless and  speaking one economic language but then doing something completely different. This  is a Government that has far too often been willing to trade in influence and conduct  its affairs in an opaque way raising questions as to the special interests that wield  influence within the heart of Government and its relationships with a privileged few. 

So when the Chief Minister said in his New Year Message that his Government always  tells the truth it would be laughable if it were not so serious. Just in the last 12 months  there has been a catalogue of half-truths, spin and downright lies that cascade off the  Government’s press releases and statements in an unstoppable waterfall. 

When TNG were announced as the successful party that would get the Bayside-St  Anne’s site we were treated to both fiction and special interests. First we were told by  Mr Picardo that they had been the highest bidder in the expressions of interest process  for those valuable sites. This was plainly untrue because TNG did not even exist when  the expressions of interest closed. The company was incorporated years later. Then  of course we all became aware that while they were negotiating the allocation of  valuable land for luxury development a sister entity had made a £3.75M donation to  the Government to bail it out from its financial excesses. Only a few days after they  were awarded the Bayside/St Anne’s site that same entity was also awarded the whole  Eastside development. 

So while we are in a financial and political crisis it is one which Mr Picardo’s Government has worsened and contributed to. And one that we have little faith they  can overcome because beyond the shine and glamour of the media spin they are politically bankrupt of ideas. 

We remain hopeful however for our future because Gibraltar has always been resilient  and has many hard-working people in the public and private sectors who with your  sheer effort will contribute your time, energy and ideas to helping navigate Gibraltar through challenges despite the failures of the Government. The GSD will also be here  ensuring that we hold the Government to account during this crucial year ahead which will influence our economic and political future and providing the alternative Gibraltar  needs. 

Thank you for watching and for listening