BORIS Johnson has stuffed the fishing industry. Instead of the Brexit “Sea of Opportunity” he promised, he landed a deal worse than the Common Fisheries Policy and Scottish seafood is literally rotting and unable to get to European markets.
“We have had no sales to the EU, our biggest market for live shellfish, in the last two weeks. If we go another week without that, we are finished,” warned Jamie McMillan of Lochfyne Langoustines.
He and many industry colleagues have been warning for months about the dangers of a bad Brexit trade deal with the European Union.
He said: “We’ve been screaming for the last six months – eight months – that we have to get our produce to market within 12 to 24 hours. Any delays in that process, our shellfish will arrive in France dead. We lost two pallets last week. It took five days to arrive in Boulogne from Scotland, so our goods were rotten on arrival.”
New border delays and Brexit red tape is causing Scottish seafood producers to lose £1 million pounds a day according to James Withers, the chief executive of Scotland Food and Drink. Some Scottish fisherman are now prepared to add two days sailing time to Denmark to land their catch in the European Union, rather than risk poor prices at home and transportation problems to the continent.
READ MORE: Scottish fishermen outline broken Brexit promises in letter to Boris Johnson
The price of some species has dropped by as much as 80% in Scotland. About one-third of Scottish vessels have now tied up and knock-on consequences are being felt onshore in the processing sector, too.
Boris Johnson is now facing accusations of dishonesty and betrayal over his fishing deal by the fishing industry itself. The National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations has written a withering letter to the Prime Minister, writing: “It is not that, in the end, you were forced to concede in the face of an intransigent and powerful opponent that has caused such fury across our industry, it is that you have tried to present the agreement as a major success when it is patently clear that it is not.”
Tory Scotland Office minister David Duguid is also in the firing line. The MP for the most fishing-dependent communities in the country is in hot water after being asked how long the problems will continue. He answered: “How long is a piece of string?”
As chief Brexit cheerleader in fishing towns such as Peterhead and Fraserburgh,rather than admit to having reached a poor Brexit trade deal, Tory ministers at Westminster are deploying the worst form of unconvincing jingoistic nonsense in their own defence. Jacob Rees-Mogg said: “What is happening is that the Government is tackling this issue, dealing with it as quickly as possible, and the key thing is we’ve got our fish back. They’re now British fish and they’re better and happier fish for it.”
Some 4.5 million people have now seen the glib flag-waving idiocy on social media alone. That includes most people in coastal communities from Peterhead to Eyemouth and Campbeltown to Kinlochbervie.
Mr Rees-Mogg’s comments came after UK Fisheries minister Victoria Prentis admitted she had not even read the trade deal, at the time of its publication or since, because she was too busy organising a nativity event.
In response Nathalie Loiseau, France’s former Europe minister, tweeted on Thursday afternoon: “An MP who says the fish are happier because they are now British, a fisheries minister who admits she hasn’t read the agreement with the EU in her field: happily in Europe, we at least took fishermen seriously.”
READ MORE: Jacob Rees-Mogg tells SNP fish are happier post-Brexit as they are British
Fishermen, the fishing industry and fishing communities have been taken for fools by Boris Johnson. Even in the face of appalling damage inflicted by his Brexit trade deal, the UK Prime Minister has continued with his unserious approach to this, as with so many other things.
When giving evidence to a House of Commons committee this week, he suggested there would be special new support given the circumstances – only for Downing Street spinners to clarify afterwards that this was not new money, but an existing transition fund.
All of this is bad enough, but that Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross, Scotland Office minister David Duguid and their colleagues have not been prepared to stand up and fight is shameful.
They are apologists for a fisheries deal worse than the Common Fisheries Policy.
Scottish Tories sold out the Scottish fishing industry in the 1970s when they followed the UK civil service advice that fishing communities were “expendable”. Having promised a “Sea of Opportunity” with Brexit they have delivered an ocean of lies. They will pay a heavy electoral price.
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