Spain’s new Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has only been in the job since the summer, but that’s no excuse for his laughably incorrect tweet last night suggesting Spain could somehow “veto Brexit.”

In reality, the EU states’ vote on the Withdrawal Agreement will be by the process of qualified majority voting, meaning May’s deal needs only 20/27 EU states to pass this hurdle. Similarly, even if the deal were to be voted down, Brexit would not be cancelled. It is a fact of UK statute that this country will be leaving the EU on 29th March 2019, whether the EU agrees or not.

Sanchez gained power in Spain in June by successfully ousting the larger centre-right People’s Party in a confidence vote, without an election. As a consequence, even with fragile confidence and supply arrangements, his Socialist Party does not command a consistent majority in the Chamber of Deputies. Added to this, there are regional elections coming up in Spain in just a few months. Guido is sure that Sanchez’s sudden peacocking over Gibraltar is nothing at all to do with his incredibly fragile grip on domestic power…

Socialist Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has announced that Spain will vote against the Withdrawal Agreement if there are no changes to how Gibraltar is dealt with, saying “Gibraltar is represented by the United Kingdom, but it doesn’t belong to the United Kingdom.”

Last week Sanchez suggested he will vote against the agreement if there is no explicit legal guarantee that his Government is given a veto over whether the future agreement can apply to Gibraltar. He said that he will argue for “shared sovereignty” over Gibraltar during the future relationship negotiations. This deal is hanging by a thread…