RUTH Davidson was accused of selling out Scotland’s fishermen yesterday during a heated session of First Minister’s Questions that was dominated by Europe and the election.

The Tory leader had attacked Nicola Sturgeon, claiming the SNP were inconsistent on how they approached Europe and the Scottish fishing industry.

Davidson suggested it was impossible to support Scotland’s fishermen and also want to remain part of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP).

The National:

Earlier this week, two SNP MPs signed a pledge by the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation which said Scotland should in future stay outside the CFP.

Scotland’s fishermen generally detest the CFP, which saw British waters, including much of the North Sea, opened up to other countries when Britain joined the European Economic Community in 1973.

According to official figures, 58 per cent of catches in UK waters are taken by non-UK EU nations under the rules of the CFP. After Brexit, the UK will become a coastal state with rights and responsibilities for harvesting the sea in an Exclusive Economic Zone.

However, leaked documents from the EU suggested Britain continuing to respect the rights and obligations in the CFP could be a key part of negotiations in any Brexit trade deal.

“Nicola Sturgeon’s stated position is to be a full member of the European Union; her MPs’ stated position is to leave the Common Fisheries Policy.

“However, full membership of the European Union means full membership of the Common Fisheries Policy,” Davidson argued.

Sturgeon said the SNP had “been consistent over many years in our criticisms of the Common Fisheries Policy” pointing out that the party’s 2011 manifesto and the 2014 White Paper on independence both talked of reforming the CFP.

She added: “The reality is that it is the SNP that always stands up for Scottish fishing and always will stand up for Scottish fishing. The uncomfortable truth for Ruth Davidson is that it is successive Tory governments that have sold out the fishing industry.

“I know that Ruth Davidson does not want to hear what is coming next, but we remember the words of the Tories: ‘in the wider UK context’ the fishermen ‘must be regarded as expendable.’ That is the Tory record on fishing.”

That was a reference to a quote from a now infamous 1970 Scotland Office memo about joining the EEC that was released in 2000.

Davidson said she would be willing to go “toe to toe” on their respective party’s records on fishing.

The SNP later pointed out that Tory Secretary of State David Mundell had previously warned fishermen and voters that “the idea we would go back to a position where we were entirely in control of our own fishing is not one that is realistic”.

In the final weeks of last year’s EU referendum, Mundell told the Press and Journal he thought the “fishermen are wrong in the sense there is no way we would just go back to Scotland or Britain controlling British waters” after Brexit.

Meanwhile, backbench Tory MSP Liam Kerr asked the First Minister the Government’s “position on the accuracy of the GERS figures”.

This follows recent spats over the estimates, fuelled in part by columns in this newspaper by economics Professor Richard Murphy, who has suggested the data is not good enough to predict the economy of an independent Scotland.

Sturgeon said GERS was of “high quality and of public value” but it was “not an indication of the finances of an independent Scotland, which would be dependent on a range of other factors, including the spending choices and priorities of the Government of the day.”

Kerr asked the SNP leader to criticise the people in her party who “undermine and delegitimise GERS.”

Sturgeon replied: “The simple point that I am making is this: GERS does not tell us anything much about the finances of an independent Scotland.

“It is not just me who says that – the Fraser of Allander institute says that GERS reflects ‘current constitutional arrangements’.”