Michael Howard has visited Gibraltar as part of the Conservative campaign for the European elections.

Following a European Court of Human Rights ruling, Gibraltar is now considered part of the South West region for European parliamentary elections.

A party spokesman said the Conservative leader was making the journey on Monday to "show his personal commitment to the people of Gibraltar".

He added that the overall "theme" of the visit was to highlight how Labour were continually letting people down.

He argued that this was "evident" from the government's decision to negotiate Gibraltar's sovereignty with Spain despite the opposition of overwhelming numbers of the population.

Howard was set to meet chief minister Peter Caruana and take part in a walkabout.

He was likely to receive a warmer welcome from locals than other recent political visitors.

They barracked foreign secretary Jack Straw in the run up to the 2002 referendum - organised by the Gibraltar government - on whether to rejoin Spain, before voting "no" in the poll.

The Tories' number one candidate in the South West, Neil Parrish, has strong links with the Rock.

And Conservative MP Edward Garnier gave his backing to the visit.

Garnier, a member of the all party British-Gibraltar parliamentary group, also lambasted the failure of other UK-based parties to focus o the needs of Gibraltarians..

"For the first time in our political history, Gibraltar's 18,000 voters will cast their ballots in the European elections on 10 June as part of the South West region," he said.

"It is shameful that Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the United Kingdom Independence Party have not even bothered to mention Gibraltar in their European election manifestos.

"Only the Conservatives can be trusted to stand up for Gibraltar in the face of pressure from Spain.

"Gibraltar may be a small place but it is entitled to self-determination."