STINK AT DOWNING ST
Fishermen take their red tape protest to No 10
FURIOUS fishermen – many from Scotland – descended on Downing Street yesterday to protest against post-Brexit red tape said to be costing up to £1million a day.
But having reached their destination, they were stopped by police for breaching coronavirus rules.
Claiming the current bureaucracy risks ‘grinding the industry to a halt’, hauliers had threatened to dump tons of rotten fish on the Prime Minister’s doorstep.
Instead, 15 drivers or passengers of lorries that had travelled across the country and disrupted traffic near Parliament now face fines for ‘Covid-related offences’ relating to unnecessary journeys.
More than 20 large lorries arrived in London yesterday morning, emblazoned with slogans including ‘Brexit carnage’ and ‘Incompetent government destroying shellfish industry’. They were protesting in response to difficulties in exporting produce to the EU since the UK’s transition period ended on December 31.
A spokesman for Berwickshire-based DR Collin & Son said: ‘We have been asked to take part in a peaceful protest with another 20-plus shellfish exporters from around the UK. The industry is being tied in knots with paperwork requirements.’
The spokesman said these were not ‘teething issues’, as reported by the Government, and the consequences ‘will be catastrophic on the lives of fishermen, fishing towns and the shellfish industry as a whole’ unless the problems are fixed.
Alasdair Hughson, the Scottish Creel
Fishermen’s Federation chairman, said: ‘If the debacle does not improve very soon, we are looking at many established businesses coming to the end of the line.’
Jimmy Buchan, chief executive of the Scottish Seafood Association, said he had recently met Fisheries Minister Victoria Prentis to try to speed up the process, and ‘every day was getting better’.