Gove in tangle with May over ‘sub-optimal’ fishing deal

Environment Secretary warns Brussels there will be ‘consequences’ if EU overfishes UK waters

MICHAEL GOVE yesterday publicly criticised Theresa May’s Brexit transition deal, setting out his “disappointment” at a “sub-optimal” agreement for British fishermen.

The Environment Secretary threatened Brussels bureaucrats with “consequences” if they allowed EU trawlers to overfish British waters during the transition period from March next year after he was confronted by Tory MPS in the House of Commons.

The MPS said they had put the Government “on notice” after they voiced concerns directly to the Prime Minister about the impact of the deal on fishing.

Fishermen had wanted the UK to regain full control of the country’s fishing waters immediately after formally leaving the EU.

However, the agreement reached on Monday stated that the UK will be “consulted” on the allocation of fishing quotas and access to waters during the transition period, which lasts until the end of December 2020.

Mrs May told the Cabinet yesterday that the deal reached in Brussels represented “another step forward on the road to Brexit”.

Around the Cabinet table senior ministers discussed the “safeguards which were in the agreement to protect the interests of British fishermen”.

But asked when Mrs May would consider the UK to have taken back control of its waters, the Prime Minister’s spokesman said: “It’s clear what is going to be happening going forward in the implementation period.

“In December 2020 we will be negotiating fishing opportunities as a third country and an independent coastal state for the first time in over 40 years.”

Mrs May met MPS after the Cabinet meeting. Tory MP John Lamont, one of the de facto leaders of the group, said the Prime Minister now “understood their concerns”.

Mrs May could come under pressure over the deal when she answers questions from MPS at Prime Minister’s

Questions today.

Conservative MPS Jacob Rees-mogg, Craig Mackinlay and Ross Thomson are taking part in a protest on the Thames outside Parliament this morning which will later see fish discarded into the river in protest at EU policies.

Mr Gove – who led Vote Leave before the 2016 EU referendum and campaigned on fishing rights – was said to be “furious” with the deal when he met the Tory MPS and the party’s chief whip on Monday evening.

Mr Gove made clear his unease hours after the Cabinet, telling MPS that “as someone whose father was a fish merchant and whose grandparents went to sea to fish I understand how these communities feel. I share their disappointment”.

He added: “I strongly sympathise with concerns about past records of governments with the fishing industry. If the EU were to choose to act in a way (not in good faith) the consequences for all would not be happy.

“If the EU were for any reason in 2019 to behave in a way which were contrary to our long-term interests, it would also be contrary to their longterm interests.” He added that “in the transition deal we have accepted a suboptimal outcome. But it is only for an additional 12 months and we must keep our eyes on the prize”.

Tory MPS lined up to criticise the deal in the Commons. Douglas Ross, the Scottish Conservative MP, said: “There’s no way I can sell this deal in the transitional period as anything like a success to fishing communities in Moray, Scotland or the UK.”

John Redwood, a former Cabinet minister and Brexiteer, added that Mrs May must tell her fellow leaders at this week’s European Council summit that the deal is “unacceptable”.

He added: “We voted to take back control of our fish, our money, our borders and our laws.”

‘We voted to take back control of our fish, our money, our borders and our laws’