SCOTTISH Tory Brexiteer Ross Thomson was furious about the possibility of Britain staying in Europe longer than had already been promised.
“It would leave us in a total state of vassalage,” the Aberdeen South MP thundered in response to reports Theresa May could extend the Brexit implementation period beyond December 2020.
Thomson, who since his election to Westminster last year has become one of the most vocal and high-profile Tory backbench Eurosceptics, took to Twitter to blast the Prime Minister’s plan: “We would be obliged to comply with EU regulations whilst having no say over them,” he wrote.
READ MORE: Ross Thomson 'humiliated' over lack of answers on Good Friday Agreement
“It would tie our fishermen into the hated Commons Fisheries Policy for longer which is both destructive to the industry and totally and utterly unacceptable.
“No deal which would give us immediate and total control of our water and our money to spend how we wish is far more preferable to any transition extension which reduced the UK to vassalage.”
There was support for Thomson’s position from the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation, who said, there was “genuine fear” among their members of what might happen to their livelihoods if there was yet more time in the “Brexit waiting room”.
The possibility of Britain staying in the EU until the end of December 2021 would likely mean skippers bound by quotas and restrictions set by the CFP.
It would also mean that Britain would lose its seat at the table where those quotas are set from Brexit day.
Scottish fisherman, who overwhelmingly backed Brexit, could be trapped by the CFP, without any say in the discussion, for three and a half years.
“We understand the logic for some of an extension to the implementation period, but for fishing it would make no sense whatsoever to force the industry to operate under the Common Fisheries Policy beyond 2020,” said the SFF.
“All the practical international processes for the UK to become an independent coastal state, exercising its rights and responsibilities accordingly, are already in place.
“Further postponement would erode if not endanger our emergence as one of the primary coastal states in the North-East Atlantic.
“There is a genuine fear among fishermen that any extension to the UK’s time in the Brexit waiting room would be used by the EU to place conditions on the return of fish stocks that are rightfully ours”.
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