Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson’s plan to scare away Spanish vessels off Gibraltar by using paintballs
Mr Williamson made the extraordinary suggestion during a Ministry of Defence meeting as a way to prevent the growing number of Spanish incursions into British waters
DEFENCE Secretary Gavin Williamson has stunned military chiefs by asking them to paintball Spanish ships trespassing in Gibraltar’s waters.
The Cabinet minister made the extraordinary suggestion during a recent MoD meeting with top brass.
It came after Mr Williamson had initially proposed an even more incendiary idea, to send a Royal Navy Type 45 destroyer to the Spanish territory of Ceuta on the Moroccan coast.
The Defence Secretary - nicknamed Private Pike after the dithering Dad’s Army character - then proposed arming locals on the Rock with paintball guns to splat Spanish Navy and police vessels whenever they illegally entered British waters in a bid to humiliate them.
The order came during 42 year-old Mr Williamson’s regular Monday afternoon meeting with Britain’s military chiefs just before Christmas.
The number of illegal incursions in British waters by Spanish state vessels off Gibraltar has grown alarmingly to a rate of more than two a day.
From 541 in 2017, it shot up to a total of 816 in 2018.
But the defence supremo’s solution for dealing with it left Chief of Defence Staff General Sir Nick Carter rolling his eyes in front of him, it was also claimed last night.
A senior military source told The Sun: “Gavin Williamson comes up with some pretty off the wall things, but firing paintballs at the Spanish Navy beats the lot of them.
“It was an excruciating moment when everyone in the room realised he was deadly serious. Private Pike strikes again.
“Nick Carter just rolled his eyes and said, ‘We’ll come up with some options minister”, but everybody knew he wouldn’t. It’s properly potty.”
The chiefs had earlier managed to talk out Mr Williamson from sending a destroyer to Ceuta in tit for tat revenge as a too provocative a move that could lead to conflict.
Mr Williamson’s aides last night confirmed he had made both proposals.
But they insisted the paintball suggestion was just meant as a joke and he had no serious intention that they actually carry it out.
An MoD spokesman said: “While the Defence Secretary was speaking in jest about paintballing Spanish ships, he is in favour of the Royal Navy taking a strong stand against Spanish incursions into sovereign British waters”.
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The Government of Gibraltar’s count of the number of Spanish incursions is even higher, as it also counts potentially innocent passages through UK waters without permission.
It registered almost more than 1,800 last year.
The incursions counted are either by Spanish navy ships, Guardia Civil vessels or state customs boats.
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