The GSD have issued a statement calling for the Cheif Minister to pay for legal fees himself if he were to file a legal challenge against the Openshaw Report.

A statement from the GSD follows below:

If Mr Picardo files a legal challenge against the Openshaw Report he should pay for it himself. 

On several occasions during yesterday’s GBC Viewpoint programme and since the publication of the Openshaw Report  in the McGrail Inquiry the Chief Minister has talked about the possibility of filing a legal challenge against its findings. 

Leader of the Opposition, Keith Azopardi said: “Mr Picardo established the Inquiry for it to find “the truth, the whole  truth and nothing but the truth” (in his own words). The truth found by Sir Peter Openshaw - a respected retired High  Court Judge - is that Mr Picardo acted improperly and attempted to interfere in a criminal investigation on a number  of occasions.” 

Of course, now Mr Picardo finds this to be an inconvenient truth and talks disparagingly of the Inquiry Report as just  being one opinion. But the people of Gibraltar did not pay £8M for just an opinion. It was for the Inquiry to establish  the facts and (presumably) for all participants to live with the outcomes one way or the other as would be the normal  way in a public inquiry. It is for good reason that legal challenges to a public inquiry are very rare – it is because they  are intended to deliver finality. One of the leading academic works on public inquiries states that the “conclusions of  an inquiry have only been successfully challenged in one reported case…” 

Stunningly Mr Picardo said on 23 December 2025 that the Government had been “vindicated” and he personally had  been “exonerated” at the Inquiry. This was false. But of course, the massive contradiction in Mr Picardo’s position is  to then say he is contemplating a legal challenge. Why is a legal challenge necessary if the Government have been  vindicated or he was “exonerated”? In fact, in their press release of 23 December 2025 the Government stated that  “With the Report now published, Gibraltar can finally draw a line under this matter and move forward with confidence  in the strength and integrity of our institutions.” Given all that it is clear that any legal challenge could only be for Mr  Picardo’s personal reasons. 

Indeed, on the GBC programme he said that he had the right like “any citizen” to file a challenge. That is of course  right. But like “any citizen” if he wants to file a legal challenge against the personal findings of truth made against him  by the Inquiry then he should pay for it out of his own pocket. The taxpayer should not fund legal crusades by Mr  Picardo as a private citizen against the inconvenient truth found by the Inquiry that he acted in a grossly improper  manner on several occasions.