‘Fairer’ for f ishermen
May’s pledge to industry over EU deal as she dismisses SNP ‘sell-out’ claims
THERESA May yesterday promised that Scots fishermen will get a fairer deal after Brexit – and rejected Nicola Sturgeon’s claims she is preparing to ‘sell out’ the industry.
A draft deal on post-Brexit relations, published yesterday, states that the EU and the UK will establish a new fisheries agreement on access to waters and quota shares.
Miss Sturgeon immediately claimed the document proved the UK Government was ready to use the industry as a ‘bargaining chip in wider trade talks’.
She said it showed that demands made by Scottish Secretary David Mundell and other Scottish Tory MPs had been ignored. But Mrs May said the agreement will allow fishermen to get a far better deal than they do now. She also confirmed it will not be ‘traded off’ against other priorities, such as trade deals.
In a statement to MPs, Mrs May said: ‘Let me be absolutely clear about what this would mean for fishing. We would become an independent coastal state, with control over our waters, so our fishermen get a fairer share of the fish in our waters.
‘We have firmly rejected a link between access to our waters and access to markets. The fisheries agreement is not something we will be trading off against any other priorities. We are clear we will negotiate access and quotas on an annual basis as, for example, do other independent coastal states like Norway and Iceland.’
The draft agreement setting out the framework for the future relationship between the EU and the UK says the two sides will cooperate on the development of measures on ‘conservation, rational management and regulation’ of fisheries and work closely with other coastal states to manage shared stocks.
It states: ‘Within the context of the overall economic partnership the parties should establish a new fisheries agreement on, inter alia, access to waters and quota shares. The parties will use their best endeavours to conclude and ratify their new fisheries agreement by July 1, 2020, in order for it to be in place in time to be used for determining fishing opportunities for the first year after the transition period.’
Miss Sturgeon made her ‘sellout’ claims at First Minister’s Questions.
But her spokesman was unable to explain what the SNP wanted to happen differently, other than continued membership of the EU single market alongside agreements linked to that – though that would mean continued membership of the hated Common Fisheries Policy.
In the Commons, SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford also called the proposals a sell-out.
But Mrs May said: ‘I will tell him what a sell-out of Scottish fishermen would be – it’s the policy of the Scottish National Party to stay in the CFP.’
Bertie Armstrong, chief executive of the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation, said: ‘The declaration gives the UK the power to assert its position as an independent coastal state with practical sovereignty over our waters and natural resources.
‘However, we know that several EU nations will not give up their attempts to link access with trade in order to retain absolute rights to fish around our coastline. So we will continue to seek assurances from the UK Government it will remain steadfast.’