Spanish tourism officials have called for the European Union to axe its 90-day travel limit on British holidaymakers.
Former tourism secretaries Fernando Valdés and Hector Gomez have argued that the rule, which was implemented after Brexit, is harming the country’s economy, according to local media.
Spain’s tourism industry relies heavily on holidaymakers from the UK, as well as second-home owners.
The country has lobbied for an EU-wide exception to let British tourists remain there for up to 180 days.
But while it has sought to make changes, the 90-day cap remains across the Schengen zone, meaning Brits must rely on traditional long-stay visas or residency permits to remain in Spain for longer than 90 days.
MPs in the UK have also been pushing the British government to address the issue, arguing that visa restrictions have continued to cause problems for Britons who live, work or regularly travel to Spain.
Some UK politicians have been vocal on the issue, and have argued that millions of Britons working or living abroad were being largely overlooked when Brexit regulations first went into place.
Helen Morgan, the Liberal Democrat MP for North Shropshire, has called for the government to take a more proactive approach to repairing relations with Europe and addressing problems caused by Brexit, which includes the 90 day rule.
Spain’s tourism industry relies heavily on holidaymakers from the UK visiting sites such as Fuengirola city beach on the Costa del Sol
Before Brexit, British citizens could travel freely across Europe, staying for as long as they wished in EU-member countries.
However, that changed in 2021 when the UK left the EU’s free movement system as a result of Brexit.
Since then, UK nationals visiting the Schengen zone, which includes countries such as Spain, France, and Italy, can stay for up to 90 days within any 180-day period without needing a visa.
While this isn’t a major problems for some, it has had a much bigger impact on those who spend long stretches of time in Europe, including retirees, second-home owners and remote workers.
Britain’s membership of the EU has long been a thorny subject and 10 years ago a narrow majority of the population voted to leave the bloc in a referendum.
Since 2020, when Britain finally left, few prominent figures have dared to revive the question, recalling the political paralysis and bitter division of the time.
But the issue reared its head in the chaos following Labour’s poor election performance this month.
The Labour party on Monday revisited the divisive wounds of Brexit, after former health minister Wes Streeting, hoping to challenge Prime Minister Keir Starmer, called for the country to rejoin the EU.
Streeting, who resigned as health minister last week and announced he would run to replace Starmer, broke years of guarded silence by the party on Brexit, in what was seen as a tactic in a potential leadership contest.
Dozens of Labour MPs last week urged Starmer to quit after dire local election results, raising the prospect of a change in prime minister, just two years into the party’s tenure.
With Streeting and Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham poised to launch challenges against Starmer, the former raised the politically toxic issue of Brexit, calling for Britain to eventually rejoin the EU.
‘We need a new special relationship with the EU, because Britain’s future lies with Europe, and one day back in the European Union,’ Streeting said at a conference on Sunday – a rejoining pledge that Starmer has so far avoided.
‘I’m grounded in the job that I’m doing, which is to make sure we are closer to the EU,’ Starmer, who has resisted calls to quit, said Monday.
Regarding Brexit, he added he would ‘not get lost in a debate about what may happen years down the line’.
Should Brits be allowed to stay longer in Spain again?
Streeting raised the politically toxic issue of Brexit, calling for Britain to eventually rejoin the EU
Burnham is preparing to stand for a parliamentary seat that would allow him to compete to replace Starmer.
To do so, he must defeat pro-Brexit and anti-immigration Reform UK in the constituency of Makerfield.
Reform UK leader and Brexit figurehead Nigel Farage warned voters in that by-election in northwest England that Labour would ‘drag you closer to the EU’.
The debate forced Burnham to distance himself from Streeting’s stance, saying while there was a case to rejoin the EU in the long term, he would not campaign on the issue in the by-election if selected as Labour’s candidate.
‘My view is that Brexit has been damaging, but I also believe the last thing we should do right now is rerun those arguments,’ he said Monday.
Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy insisted that rejoining the EU was a ‘red line’ for Starmer’s government.
‘Wes Streeting has left the government. He can have a debate, he can comment, that is not my position,’ Lammy told Sky News.
