This is the full text of Keith Azopardi’s speech on the occasion of the swearing in of the new Governor Sir Benjamin Bathurst:

On behalf of His Majesty’s Opposition for Gibraltar I too wish to welcome Lady Bathurst and yourself to Gibraltar. We hope you will have a happy time among us over the next few years. 

The distinguished military pedigree of your family will have already given you a real sense of the importance of strategic Gibraltar not just now but over the course of history. We hope that over the next few years you will quickly acquire a sense of the other facets that make up our small nation. Not least our people, our aspirations, our rights and that these are the foremost considerations in the future of this territory that we call our land. 

Your task while you are here will not be easy. It will require the skill of a trapeze artist to delicately balance the various roles and interests. But given your former roles in military strategy, public relations and within NATO and the EU you will be keenly attune to the various issues that arise. 

You will find that we value our links with the British Crown as much as we will, in the best traditions of British freedom of speech, rile against a British Government that is too slow or reluctant to protect our interests when that happens. 

During your time here you will find the people of Gibraltar welcoming of you and keen to share talk of our aspirations, history and culture. Equally keen that you should participate in the diverse and colourful quilt of cultures that make up modern, cosmopolitan Gibraltar. 

We will hope that through those conversations you will understand our aspirations and become one of our advocates. 

Under our constitution you are His Majesty’s representative in Gibraltar and part of the constitutional architecture of our country. Inevitably with that constitutional role in full public glare comes a perception of how that is exercised. The British monarchy is a model of how it has exercised similar functions in the United Kingdom in a politically neutral way. 

Historically there have been mixed roles for Governors and perhaps that has not helped in the understanding of these. For many years a Governor has sometimes looked as if he had functions for the British Government as well as for Gibraltar institutions. That is historically understandable because when a territory is in the infancy of its first steps along the road of self-government, gradual powers of self-government are stripped away from a Governor who– wherever it has been – has effectively governed in the fullest sense of the word for the United Kingdom. 

As has been the norm throughout the Commonwealth, the Governor in Gibraltar has, over a long process of self-government, gone from effectively running this place to having a very different and limited role. 

It has been more than 40 years (and arguably more than 100 years) since the English and Commonwealth courts recognised that the Crown in a self- governing territory comprises a separate and distinct Crown in right of that territory. 

As Gibraltar has undoubtedly acquired that measure of self-government the Crown that you represent under the Constitution is that of the Crown in right of Gibraltar and not of the United Kingdom – when inter- governmental constitutional tensions arise it is important to bear that in mind. 

While a Governor is the King’s representative the Constitution requires that the functions as Governor are exercised in accordance with our laws and constitution. 

His Majesty together with the Parliament constitutes the Legislature for Gibraltar and in your capacity as the King’s representative you are present at the Ceremonial Opening of our Parliament after an election and, on arrival, are sworn-in here where the elected representatives of the people can greet you. 

This is not just about mere symbolism but about democratic legitimacy and the consent of the people (signified through their senior representatives) to your constitutional role. 

Nowadays a Governor has certain very limited legislative and executive functions because as the Constitution recognises – the Ministers together with the King constitute the Government of Gibraltar. That role prescribed in our written constitution has also evolved by constitutional conventions to soften the executive and heighten the ceremonial aspects of being Governor. 

For example, in practice while the Constitution says that external affairs are a matter for the Governor no-one who firmly believes in our right to govern ourselves or the right to our land would seriously contend for such an outcome. By convention despite that provision it has been the case for many years that successive Governments of Gibraltar have effectively determined what should be the international policy of Gibraltar in our interests. 

It would be right, within any future process of constitutional reflection, to consider further clarifying the modern role of the Office of Governor to avoid confusions and fine-tune those remaining elements of duality present in our current constitution. 

You join us a few months after the closest general election ever where the margin of victory was as thin as a wafer. You will hear, while you are among us, that the Government and Opposition have very different visions on a number of matters that touch upon financial and democratic governance, other domestic matters and indeed [sometimes] on external affairs. That is a manifestation of the vibrant democracy in which we live. 

We have, for example, just seen the evidential hearings but not the conclusion on a Public inquiry on the retirement of the former Commissioner of Police. That has been a long drawn out affair because his retirement occurred two days before your predecessor’s arrival. It was so close to his arrival that I had occasion to remark on the matter at his own swearing-in on 11 June 2020. 4 years later we await the conclusion of an Inquiry promised in July 2020. 

So far during the evidential hearings much has been revealed which is worthy of public comment because of the implications and effect on the governance of Gibraltar. We will comment on those evidential aspects in due course but have not done so yet to respect the Inquiry process and allow the Chairman to conclude his work. 

There are others in the political world that seem less restrained. The continuing loaded partial serialisation by a party-political newspaper owned by the majority party in Government speaks to a nervousness of the process. We will await more calmly for things to get closer to a conclusion. As this will happen during your time here it is right I flag this now 

You also join us at a time of regrettable continuing uncertainty because we still await the conclusion of the negotiations aimed at securing a new relationship for Gibraltar with the European Union. 

The British press sometimes refer to the Northern Irish border as the only British border with the European Union. And that perhaps is part of the problem. 

As the (often forgotten) only British territory actually with a border in mainland Europe we have gone from participating in a referendum we did not want – because we did not see the sense of even asking ourselves whether we wanted to conduct the mental gymnastics of pretending we were not in Europe – to voting overwhelmingly to remain – for principally the same reason. 

While the British imperative for a post-Brexit world was to end freedom of movement and place primacy on achieving a trade deal our imperative was quite the opposite – that mobility at the border should continue unhindered. Because the geographic reality is what it is and means that we are Europeans too. 

Eight years after the Brexit Referendum we are still without an EU Agreement although Britain entered into its own deal sometime ago. We may be forgiven for being dismayed at the fact that as soon as those very different deals were not clinched together the prospect of our own agreement lost momentum. 

Be that as it may we eagerly await the lifting of that cloud of uncertainty because this is now affecting thousands of citizens on the ground as well as the business environment. If an agreement emerges we will need to assess whether what is put on the table is safe and beneficial. Safe in terms of protecting our sovereignty, jurisdiction and control. Beneficial – socially and economically. 

That judgment will be for the people of Gibraltar alone – the people who have made Gibraltar their long-term home. It will not be a judgment for people in the United Kingdom, Spain or the EU – however well-meaning their interests. 

In considering that question we will need to have a realistic debate on the subject balancing the price of a no deal with the price of a deal. Because undoubtedly there will be a price. One way or the other. It will be a moment for imagination and for realism. 

It is no exaggeration to reflect that this will be a seminal moment for our community and a crossroads for our future. We look forward to having that debate and for the conclusion of those negotiations so we can, at that stage, pierce through the hyperbole and actually evaluate the consequences of what has been negotiated. 

The Brexit and post-Brexit aftermath has not been the first time that our interests are very different to British interests. There have been other examples of high tension in the recent past where decisions were taken in London that impacted on our sovereignty. You can be assured during your time here that when instances like that arise the Government and Opposition will (despite our differences) speak with one voice and the people of Gibraltar will unite around the fundamentals that have made us what we are over the last three hundred years – a separate people with a separate identity; with the right to self-determination and forced by history to live under the shadow of a claim that is now entirely anachronistic. 

Simultaneously, we undoubtedly value our links with the Commonwealth and the British Crown. 

During your time here you may ponder on what might look like contradictions in all that. On closer examination you will see that this is all a product of our evolution as a people and not unlike other populations that have developed in a sphere of British influence and become self- governing. 

We are an English-speaking, Latin, Mediterranean people living in this corner of southern Europe gazing towards North Africa and shaped by our history over many centuries. We have developed a keen sense of identity and that this is our land. We will protect it and our right to govern Gibraltar. 

207 years ago – this building; the then Exchange & Commercial Library – was organised by public subscription and proved, over time, to be a counter-point to the Garrison Library from which civilians were excluded. It opened in 1818 and eventually became a focal point for debate and the development of embryonic aspirations of self-government. 200 years later – after several legislatures and three constitutions we have achieved a very significant measure of self-government. 

But constitutions do not sit still. They are dynamic entities responsive to the aspirations and needs of the community around them. 26 years after the negotiations towards our last constitution commenced it is time to consider the next phase of constitutional reform that could be followed to continue along the path of self-government, modernise this further, improve the governance of this community and enshrine checks and balances on Executive power. 

Those of course are generic observations as to our present and future which I make because some of these issues of public interest will arise during your time here. 

For now, and in so far as this more precisely touches upon the exercise of your role in Gibraltar you can rest assured that you will have our support and our counsel on any issue and that we wish you success during your time in Gibraltar.