article: After reported lobbying from Spain, the EU's Brexit negotiation strategy is that decisions affecting Gibraltar will be run past the Spanish government. Labour's Keir Starmer said Gibraltar should not be a "bargaining chip". Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has insisted Britain remains "implacable and rock-like" in its support. Mr Johnson held talks on Friday with Gibraltar's chief minister to reassure him of the UK government's continued backing. Mr Johnson met with Fabian Picardo who said the territory was being singled out for "unnecessary, unjustified and unacceptable" discrimination by Spain. An EU source told the BBC the inclusion of the Gibraltar issue in the document triggering Article 50 had come after lobbying from Spain. However, Theresa May had not mentioned Gibraltar once in her 2,200-word letter, starting the Brexit process. Lord Boswell, chairman of the House of Lords EU Committee, said the government must not give the impression that Gibraltar is an "afterthought". Sir Keir, the shadow Brexit secretary, has told Brexit Secretary David Davis that Gibraltar's sovereignty and interests must be protected. Clare Moody, Labour MEP for Gibraltar and south west England, told BBC Radio Four's Today programme it was the government's job to "represent the people of Gibraltar". She said: "I was amazed that they failed to do that in the letter they sent on Wednesday. "It worries me that we are about to enter into the most detailed negotiations that we have known for decades. "If the government has overlooked the interests of Gibraltar, which is a crucial part of the kind of constitutional arrangements of our membership of the European Union, then what else are they going to overlook as well?" Christian Hernandez, president of the Gibraltar Chamber of Commerce, told the programme that the British government needed to "stand firm in the face of Spanish bullying". "We don't want to be independent from the UK. "We've made it very clear in the last 100 years, in the last 20 years, in the last 15 years, we want a constitutional relationship with the UK, where we continue to be part of the UK and independence is not something we aspire to," he added. Spain has long contested Britain's 300 year-rule of Gibraltar. Gibraltarians, who number about 30,000, rejected by 99% to 1% the idea of the UK sharing sovereignty with Spain, in a vote in 2002. However, Spain has continued to press its territorial claim. Following last June's EU referendum - in which Gibraltar voted by 96% to 4% to remain in the EU - Spain's then foreign minister suggested shared sovereignty could allow Gibraltarians to maintain some of the benefits of EU membership and enable Spain to "plant its flag" there. But Alfonso Dastis, his successor, said in January that Spain would not put Gibraltar at the centre of the negotiations and it would be free to leave the EU if it wished. By Matthew Cole, BBC News politics reporter In the months since the referendum, many senior Spanish officials played down suggestions Brexit would be used to press Spain's claims to Gibraltar. A source close to the Spanish
summary: The UK has said it will stand up for Gibraltar's interests after the territory accused Spain of using Brexit to forward its territorial aims.