We should have had a ‘soft’ Brexit instead

SHERYLL Murray, Conservative MP for SE Cornwall, recently spoke in the House of Commons. She asked for Government support for the fishing industry because of its plight due to the detrimental effects of Brexit. What sheer breathtaking hypocrisy from her. This is the very Brexit she campaigned and voted for.

The UK fishing industry has been built around exporting the bulk of its catch directly and seamlessly into the EU Single Market. Sheryll Murray and her Government chose a hard Brexit that put an end to this direct access to the Single Market. They opted for the UK being a Third Country and thus having to comply with all the EU external regulations and red tape. Hence the huge problems for the fish exporters.

The rules are the same for any Third Country, whether the fish comes from Britain or Vietnam. If we were to have Brexit, it did not have to be a hard Brexit. A soft Brexit would have saved the fishermen from all this agony. With a soft Brexit the UK would have left the EU but retained membership of the Single Market. This would have solved not only all the current problems of the fishermen but those of all the other business sectors trying to export.

Such a soft Brexit would also have solved the Northern Ireland border problems. In addition, it would have enabled all those wealth-generating financial institutions to have stayed in London rather than having to relocate to the EU. Instead we have this damaging hard Brexit.

Sheryll Murray and Tories who supported and voted for this hard Brexit are directly responsible for jeopardising the livelihoods of the fishermen and many others. No amount of crocodile tears or trying to blame the EU will do.

Sam Lannergh St Austell, Cornwall