Disputes over sovereignty are nothing new in politics. We just gave up our own sovereignty of the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean, for example, and it pervades the conflict in Israel-Palestine. But those are disputes that receive a lot of attention. One dispute that deserves more attention is the Western Sahara question.
Sovereignty over the Western Sahara – 105,000 square miles of sparsely populated desert – has been disputed since Spain abandoned its old colony in 1975. Morocco, which controls roughly 70% of the territory, and the Polisario Front, which claims independence and controls the other 30%, ended their conflict with a ceasefire in 1991 that still holds today.
For Morocco, its possession of Western Sahara is existential. And as time has gone by, more and more of our allies have recognised Rabat’s sovereignty and plan for autonomy in the region: Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, even the United States in 2020. Just this year, France – Morocco’s former colonial overlord – joined that list. President Macron was on a state visit to Morocco only a fortnight ago with 100 French CEOs in toe and plans for a consulate in the territory. Our allies understand that only Morocco has developed the territory, raised the living standards of the indigenous Sahrawi people, and proved a beacon of stability and decency in Europe’s troubled penumbra. The alternative is the Polisario Front, a hard-left insurgency favoured by Iran. We need a stable ally at the nexus of the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. We cannot afford to concede it to hostile actors in an ungoverned vacuum.
That is why I recently introduced an adjournment debate in the House of Commons on this subject. My goal was and is to persuade the UK government to recognise Moroccan sovereignty in the same way as our peers have. That done, our relationship with Morocco will ascend to the next level. The potential benefits are great and the risks, low.
The massive Tanger Med port, in the lee of Gibraltar, has been a largely missed opportunity for the UK. Our current stance on Western Sahara now threatens opportunities in Dakhla Atlantic port. Our posture means we cannot, for example, use UK Export Finance in Western Sahara and British International Investment will not engage. If growth for the Labour government is genuinely beyond the rhetorical, it cannot miss opportunities like Dakhla.
If the Foreign Office needs more, perhaps it might wake up and smell the green energy. On offer is a 4,000 km interconnector sending the power of the Sahara’s reliable sun and wind to south-west England. This it would do through the Xlinks scheme to match in our time the great British engineering triumphs of Brunel and Telford. And it’s shovel-ready.
So, why don’t we do it? For one, we’re worried about upsetting Algeria. But our allies managed their relationships satisfactorily. In the end, none suffered any significant backlash from a pragmatic Algiers. Only France received much blowback but the relationship between France and Algeria is unique and toxic, as it has been for many decades. It does not compare to ours.
Secondly, some at the Foreign Office will say that recognising Moroccan sovereignty would mysteriously threaten our sovereignty over our remaining Overseas Territories like the Falkland Islands and Gibraltar. Cambridge professor of international law Marc Weller, in a report to the Foreign Office in April 2024, is crystal clear: ‘There are no points where endorsing the position of Morocco on which its autonomy proposal is based would in any sense distract from the UK position concerning title to the Falkland Islands.’ Even the foreign minister of Argentina, still coveting the Falklands, said in 2003, ‘The Sahara is indubitably Moroccan.’
I want the UK to stop hiding behind excuse and recognise Western Sahara as Moroccan Sahara. I want us to side with our oldest and most important allies and fellow permanent members of the UN Security Council, the US and France. I want us to revive and strengthen one of our oldest diplomatic relationships – more than 800 years standing – with the Kingdom of Morocco. I want us to make the most of all the opportunities for trade, green energy, and security recognition offers. Our position is out of line and out of date. We will make no further progress until we change it.
Why we need to recognise Moroccan Sahara
