Rees-Mogg: Fish are happier now they’re British
Tory MP mocked over his Commons codswallop We’reall breaming withpride
SOMETIMES politicians should really mullet over before speaking out loud.
Trying to allay MPs’ fears about the fishing industry yesterday, Commons leader Jacob Rees-Mogg told them that fish in British waters were ‘happier’ since the Brexit deal was signed.
The leading Brexiteer said: ‘What is happening is that the Government is tackling this issue, dealing with it as quickly as possible, and the key thing is we’ve got our fish back. They’re now British fish and they’re better and happier fish for it.’
Mr Rees-Mogg was immediately widely mocked on social media, and Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle was forced to intervene, noting dryly: ‘Obviously, there is no overwhelming evidence for that.’
Liberal Democrat MP Alistair Carmichael, who tabled an urgent question in the Commons on the fishing industry yesterday, added: ‘The insensitivity of this flippancy when boats are tied up, unable to fish because red tape has closed down their route to market, beggars belief.
‘If the fish are happier it will be because they are not getting caught and eaten. It has nothing to do with being British.’
It came as Scottish Conservatives leader Douglas Ross said fishermen should be compensated for delays in exporting their catches to the Continent.
Environment Secretary George Eustice said the issue was down to ‘teething problems’, adding that the Government was ‘working hard to address’ it.
On Wednesday, Boris Johnson told a committee of MPs that fishing businesses would be compensated for what he described as ‘temporary frustrations’.
During Mr Carmichael’s urgent question in the Commons yesterday, MPs from all parties voiced concerns about exports of Scot
‘Insensitive and flippant’
tish seafood from some companies being halted for five days by transport company DFDS.
The Danish company stopped deliveries last week after delays in getting the new paperwork introduced following the expiry of the Brexit transition period on January 1.
The documentation has to be approved before consignments can be sent to DFDS’s warehouse in South Lanarkshire and then on to English Channel ports.
Mr Ross shared the story of a fishing boat skipper whose catch was currently worth ‘half of what he needs to cover his costs’.
Mr Carmichael described the situation as ‘a shambles of the Government’s own making’. He said: ‘For years this Government has promised our fishing industry a sea of opportunity, but today our boats are tied up in harbour, their propellers filled with red tape manufactured in Whitehall.
‘Yesterday, the Prime Minister told the liaison committee that compensation had been considered for our fishing industry. Who is going to be compensated, for what and by how much?’
Mr Eustice said: ‘Yesterday we had a meeting with the Dutch officials, earlier this week we had a meeting with the French, on Friday we had a meeting with the Irish to try to iron out some of these teething problems. They are only teething problems – once people get used to using the paperwork, goods will flow normally.’
But Labour’s Bill Esterson said: ‘The shortage of vets to inspect fish, the lack of customs agents to process border forms and there not being enough time for businesses to adapt to new rules of origin are, I would suggest, a lot more than teething problems.
‘The Secretary of State might want to rethink his analysis.’
It comes after one Scottish exporter has threatened to dump mounds of rotting shellfish on Mr Johnson’s doorstep.
Jamie McMillan, of Loch Fyne Seafarms, said in a video message: ‘If Scottish exporters can’t get their product to market next week, we will be at the gates of Westminster and we will be dumping our shellfish on your doorstep, rotten. The same way the Westminster UK Government is rotten to the core.’