FEARS that the EU27 might demand greater access to UK fishing waters by threatening to withhold ratification of the entire future trade deal with the UK have been raised by Lord Barwell, Theresa May’s former Chief of Staff.
The Tory peer claimed a deal on fishing rights would have to be done by the autumn if, as Boris Johnson has insisted, Britain will leave the transition period with Brussels by December.
He warned: “The EU doesn’t believe we can do the entire future relationship by the summer and, therefore, we’re going to have to prioritise. My fear is that gets you back into what we had in the first phase of the negotiations where the EU puts pressure to do things most important to it…
“The fear among the fishing industry - that fishing will be traded off - is a very acute one because they feel that is what happened exactly in the negotiations when we originally joined the EU[in the 1970s].”
- READ MORE: All three devolved parliaments reject Brexit Bill
Lord Barwell told the BBC: “This is the most difficult issue because it will be very difficult for the UK to compromise on the principle. But any deal[has to be] ratified by all of the national parliaments, almost certainly, and if they lose access to the waters, are they going to realistically ratify the deal?”
The Prime Minister and his colleagues have been adamant Britain will become an independent coastal state with full control over its waters by the end of the year.
However, some EU states like France, Spain and Denmark are intent on fighting to maximise their access to them.
Last month, Mette Frederiksen, the Danish premier, insisted: “When it comes to Brexit, fishing is particularly important for Denmark because it is a profession that depends on good co-operation with the countries that share the same fishing area,” she said.
Meanwhile, peers set themselves on a collision course with the Commons after inflicting five defeats on Boris Johnson's Brexit Bill.
After three defeats on Monday, the Lords backed two more amendments to the legislation, backing:
*a move to ensure the rights of unaccompanied child refugees to be reunited with their families in the UK post-Brexit and
*a move – by just four votes - underlining the commitment to the so-called Sewel Convention, which states the UK Parliament "will not normally" legislate for devolved matters without the consent of the devolved legislature affected.
The Government’s latest defeat came as the SNP’s Ian Blackford formally requested the right to attend any meeting of the Privy Council held to grant Royal Assent to the bill to enable him to protest in person at the measure becoming law.
In a letter to Commons Leader Jacob Rees-Mogg, who is President of the Council, the Nationalist leader at Westminster pointed out how the Scottish Parliament, the Welsh Sennedd and the Northern Ireland Assembly had all withheld their consent to the bill.
Passing it into law without the legislative consent of the three legislatures would be a “serious breach of the letter and spirit of the Sewel Convention, which has underpinned devolution on these islands for the past 20 years,” declared Mr Blackford.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel