{"id":127824,"date":"2025-05-24T11:05:09","date_gmt":"2025-05-24T11:05:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/127824\/"},"modified":"2025-05-24T11:05:09","modified_gmt":"2025-05-24T11:05:09","slug":"starmers-brexit-reset-has-cast-fishermen-adrift","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/127824\/","title":{"rendered":"Starmer\u2019s \u2018Brexit reset\u2019 has cast fishermen adrift"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week, UK prime minister Keir Starmer proudly presented his dismal plans for a so-called Brexit reset<\/a>. This includes, among other things, sacrificing Britain\u2019s already hard-pressed fishing communities to the EU, by handing over fishing grounds for another 12 years<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This deal is, simply put, disastrous. It massively extends what was supposed to be a temporary post-Brexit phase-out period for EU vessels to continue fishing in British waters. This was originally set to expire next June, five years after the UK formally left the EU. It will now only run out in June 2038. While future governments will technically be able to rip up the agreement, the deal contains a clause that allows EU leaders to respond with punitive tariffs on British exports, should fishing access be restricted before then. <\/p>\n

It should come as no surprise that hard-nosed EU negotiators should demand, at the last minute, a block on handing back control of Britain\u2019s fishing waters. After all, the UK has some of the richest fishing grounds in the world and by far the most productive in Europe<\/a>. Before Brexit, around half of EU catches<\/a> came from UK waters.<\/p>\n

For British fishermen, Starmer\u2019s Brexit reset is a familiar betrayal. It was in 1970 that Conservative prime minister Edward Heath first colluded to secretly give away this country\u2019s greatest renewable asset<\/a>. This laid the foundations for the Common Fisheries Policy, introduced in 1983, which enshrined equal access to European Economic Community (EEC) member states\u2019 waters. It imposed quotas ostensibly to prevent over-fishing, but it disproportionately disadvantaged British fishermen.<\/p>\n

Even after the EU and UK finally secured a Brexit deal in 2021, EU fishing vessels maintained the right to fish UK waters until 2026. This was yet another blow for British fishing communities, which already had to endure a raw deal through the CFP quota system. In theory, after Brexit, the UK should have gained a bigger share of the fishing quota. In practice, most of the UK quota \u2013 54 per cent<\/a> \u2013 is in any case owned by foreign interests, and the rest by a few millionaires. Small fishing outfits were squeezed out under this system. <\/p>\n

Enjoying spiked?<\/p>\n

Why not make an instant, one-off donation?<\/p>\n

We are funded by you. Thank you!<\/p>\n

\n \u00a35
\n \u00a310
\n \u00a350
\n \u00a3100\n <\/p>\n

Choose an amount<\/p>\n

\n Donate now\n <\/p>\n

\n Please wait… <\/p>\n

Other island nations, as well as those with long coastlines, seem to treasure the natural resources they are blessed with and will stop at nothing to defend their interests for the nation and future generations. In fact, Greenland was one of the first countries to leave the EEC back in 1985 (years before Brexit was even a word), largely because it wanted greater control over fishing rights. Similarly, Norway is still not a formal member of the European Union, in part because EU membership demands participation in the CFP \u2013 one of the most insane rackets ever devised. <\/p>\n

Britain\u2019s ruling class has long taken a different approach. Fishing, like so many other British sectors, fell victim to the trend for rapid de-industrialisation, selling off anything not nailed down and trusting in the vagaries of the finance sector. This led directly to the effective privatisation of the fishing sector and the growth in unregulated trade in licences. It also further encouraged the influx of \u2018quota hoppers<\/a>\u2019 from Spain and the Netherlands. That is, when fishing vessels registered in the UK are effectively owned and operated by nationals or companies from another EU member state, thus granting them access to fish under the UK\u2019s quota, rather than their own nation\u2019s. By 1996, there were around 150 such quota hoppers on the UK register. Around 40 of those vessels had joined before CFP quotas took effect. The rest had simply bought their way in since.<\/p>\n

This process has seen fishing rights stripped from many small coastal communities in the UK. Instead, they have been consolidated in a handful of very rich fishing monopolies and transformed into a tradable commodity. An Unearthed<\/a> investigation published in 2018 found that well over a quarter of the UK\u2019s fishing quota \u2013 29 per cent \u2013 was in the hands of just five families from the The Sunday Times Rich List. The reach of this tiny elite dwarfs the holdings of the many quota hoppers, who in total hold 13 per cent of UK quota. Overall, more than two-thirds of the UK\u2019s fishing quota is now in the hands of just 25 companies. <\/p>\n

One of the groups that has been most ill-served by the UK\u2019s management of fishing rights has been its small-scale, inshore fishermen who are leaving the industry in despair. This group comprises more than three-quarters of the UK\u2019s fishing fleet and provides around half of the jobs in the catching sector. <\/p>\n

The fishing communities that have already been crippled by over half a century of greed, political horse-trading and an environmental disaster created by the lunatic CFP are viewed as expendable by political elites. Starmer\u2019s so-called reset is nothing more than a reheated betrayal. It is a continuation of the long, slow sellout of Britain\u2019s coastal communities. <\/p>\n

Brian Denny<\/strong> is a journalist who wrote the pamphlet, \u2018Rebuild Britain\u2019s Fishing Industry\u2019 for Rebuild Britain<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Who funds spiked? You do<\/p>\n

We are funded by you. And in this era of cancel culture and advertiser boycotts, we rely on your donations more than ever. Seventy per cent of our revenue comes from our readers\u2019 donations \u2013 the vast majority giving just \u00a35 per month. If you make a regular donation \u2013 of \u00a35 a month or \u00a350 a year \u2013 you can become a