Brexit plans would allow fishermen to avoid quotas

The SNP have claimed fishing stocks would be put at risk under a new post-brexit blueprint that would allow British fishermen to pay to avoid quotas after the UK leaves the European Union.

Scottish fisheries secretary Fergus Ewing complained the White Paper trespassed into areas of fishing policy that remained devolved.

UK fishermen have been promised fair access to British waters under a pledge made by Prime Minister Theresa May. The proposals include charging for fish caught in excess of quota.

However, the Scottish Government complained they had not been fully consulted about the changes.

Consumers in Scotland will be among the hardest hit in the UK by the squeeze on incomes after Brexit, research suggests.

Rising prices and depressed economic growth will affect regions outside London the most, with the impact on Scotland set to be greater than anywhere other than Northern Ireland, according to the IPPR think-tank.

Measuring the impact of a hard Brexit on the cost of an average basket of goods and services, the report says the price of food and non-alcoholic drinks is likely to rise by 5.3 per cent, and transport costs by 7.7 per cent.

IPPR senior research fellow Marley Morris said: “Limiting these impacts will require a new relationship with the EU that preserves our trade links.

“Negotiating a ‘shared market’ – based on a customs union and a deal on alignment with the EU’S single market – is the most promising strategy for minimising post-brexit price increases.”

SNP MP Neil Gray MP called on the government to abandon its Brexit “red lines”.

He said: “If the UK government drags us out of the single market and customs union, it will destroy thousands of jobs and hit the incomes, livelihoods and living standards of millions of people.”