Senior British politicians stoked a war of words with Spain over Gibraltar, as a former leader of the U.K. Conservative Party suggested London would use force to defend the disputed territory in the event of Spanish aggression.

The spat was triggered by the inclusion of a clause in the EU Council’s draft Brexit guidelines released Friday that would oblige the U.K. and Spain to come to a separate agreement about the status of Gibraltar — a small territory of 30,000 people on Spain’s southern coast — once Britain has left the bloc.

Over the weekend, British politicians rejected calls for any sharing of sovereignty between London and Madrid, with one former leader of the Conservative Party comparing the situation to the Falklands conflict in 1982 that saw the British military deployed by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher against Argentinian forces.

#Brexit