David Cameron was today urged to expel the Spanish ambassador to Britain for his country acting like the “Mugabe regime” by tampering with UK diplomatic bags at the Gibraltar border.
MPs vented fury at the incident which ministers said was a breach of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.
The Spanish foreign ministry is insisting that it was a blunder at a junior operational level and that a more senior official quickly intervened.
But Tory MP Nigel Evans told the Commons: “Official correspondence and diplomatic bags should simply not be tampered with.
“The last time anything like this happened was 13 years ago by the Zimbabwe regime of Robert Mugabe, not the best of company to be associated with.”
He stressed it was the first time that an EU state or Nato ally has opened a UK diplomatic bag, violating the Vienna Convention.
Conservative MP Andrew Rosindell urged the Government to respond by expelling the Spanish ambassador to London, Federico Trillo, who was recently summoned to the Foreign Office after a Spanish survey vessel refused to leave Gibraltar territorial waters.
The latest incident happened last Friday when two British government bags containing official correspondence and communications were opened by Spanish officials while the bags were in transit, MPs were told.
Europe minister David Lidington stressed: “This represents a serious inteference with the official correspondence and property of Her Majesty’s government and is therefore a breach of both the principles underlying the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and the principle of State Immunity.”
He added that it was a matter of “grave concerns” but rejected the calls to kick out the ambassador.
Spain has initially insisted that no diplomatic bags were involved.
