MICHAEL Gove has been forced to deny that his government sees Scotland’s fishermen as expendable.

The Tory minister faced down furious MPs, many on his own side, yesterday, after the agreed transition deal with the EU, signed off by the Prime Minister, appeared to break a previous promise to fishermen to leave Europe’s Commons Fisheries Policy next year.

The Environment Secretary begged fisherman to hold on for just another 12 months, saying that the delay to leaving the CFP was necessary to avoid a hard Brexit.

He was also asked a number of times, by his party’s own MPs, to guarantee that at the end of the implementation period, that the UK would definitely be in control of its own territorial waters and in charge of quotas.

Less than two weeks ago Gove and Scots Tory leader Ruth Davidson had put out a statement promising that “Britain will leave the CFP as of March 2019”.

Scots Lib Dem MP Alistair Carmichael, told Gove the mood in fishing communities was “one of palpable anger”.

He said: “This is not what they were promised. The basic question that the Secretary of State has to answer today is: if the Government can let us down like this on the deal for the transitional period, how do we know they will not do it again when it comes to the final deal? When it comes to it, will they trade away access to waters for access to markets or anything else?

He also asked Gove to distance himself from remarks by the Tory chief whip that it was okay to mess the communities around, as “it’s not like the fishermen are going to vote Labour”.

Gove said he shared the disappointment of fishing communities, and that “of course” his party didn’t take the votes of fishermen for granted.

But, the Cabinet member added: “The only party in this House actually committed to leaving the common fisheries policy is the Conservative party”.

The Tory minister ignored questions from SNP MPs, telling them that their party policy of remaining in the EU meant any criticism was null and void.

“When the Conservatives took us into the common fisheries policy, Scotland’s fishermen were described as expendable,” the SNP’s Stephen Gethins said, “So they are used to Scottish Tory sell-outs. But, given the matter of days involved here, even Scotland’s fishermen will be surprised at how quickly this one was turned around.”

The agreement – reached on Monday by Brexit Secretary David Davis and EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier – states the UK will be “consulted” on the allocation of fishing quotas and access to waters during the transition period.

Bertie Armstrong, Scottish Fishermen’s Federation chief executive, said the transition agreement reached by the UK and EU “falls far short of an acceptable deal” for fishermen.

“We will leave the EU and leave the CFP (Common Fisheries Policy), but hand back sovereignty over our seas a few seconds later,” he said.

“Our fishing communities’ fortunes will still be subject to the whim and largesse of the EU for another two years.”

In Holyrood, the Scottish environment secretary Fergus Ewing called on Davidson to apologise.

“It is outrageous that Ruth Davidson and Michael Gove issued such a misleading statement last weekend, when they must have known what was about to happen,” Ewing said.

“The only thing that is clear now is that Ruth Davidson’s credibility lies in ruins. She must apologise for her broken promise to our fishing industry.”

He added: “From 2019 onwards, we will be bound by legislation that is not in the interests of sensible management, such as the legislation on the key issue of choke species, which threatens the viability of the Scottish fleet.”