Prime Minister Keir Starmer defended the new EU-UK agreement in a Commons debate last week, but had no answers when MPs slammed the extension of reciprocal fishing rights and access to 2038 as ‘a stitch-up’ and ‘a betrayal’.

When Conservative and other MPs condemned the fisheries deal, the prime minister had little to say other than that it provided stability. He sidestepped criticisms and instead continually highlighted the new sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) arrangements to ease seafood exports, which he said were ‘hugely important’.

Opening the debate, Keir Starmer said the new SPS deal would ‘cut the price of a weekly shop, meaning that there will be more money in the pockets of working people, less red tape for our exporters, no more lorry drivers sitting for 16 hours at the border with rotting food in the back, and no more needless checks’.

He said: “The deal means that British goods that have long been off the menu in Europe can regain their true place, including shellfish, which are hugely important for Cornwall, Devon and Scotland.

“Not only does our deal on fish provide stability, with no increase in the amount that EU vessels can catch in British waters, but the new SPS agreement slashes costs and red tape for our exports to the European market. We sell 70% of our seafood to that market.”

But Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch and several other MPs slammed the 12-year extension of unchanged EU access to UK waters.

Kemi Badenoch said the deal was ‘a stitch-up for our country in return for short-term headlines’ and that the fishing deal was ‘an abject failure’.

The Conservative leader told MPs: “He has given away the prize most desired by EU member states, and he has done so for almost nothing.

“It is very easy to sign deals if you are prepared to give everything away for pennies. This deal locks out our fishermen until 2038. We are now in a worse position than the Faroe Islands – a set of islands with the population of Scarborough, but which gets to have annual negotiations.”

Defending the deal, Keir Starmer said none of the rights negotiated by the Conservatives had been removed. “There is no change in access for coastal communities, which is the same as before. There is no reduction in the British quota or increase in the EU quota; they are the same as before. We have reciprocal arrangements, which are the same as before.

“What is new is having the SPS agreement for the first time, and it is permanent. It reopens the EU market for shellfish, and makes it much easier to sell British fish to our largest trading partner.”

Conservative MP Aphra Brandreth (Chester South) told the PM that ‘EU access to our waters until 2038 is only a better deal for Brussels, and nothing short of a betrayal of British coastal communities’.

Keir Starmer sidestepped the allegation and again highlighted that the deal makes it easier for fishermen to sell into the EU market.

Another Conservative MP, Harriet Cross (Gordon and Buchan), said: “Our fishermen had been promised, and the EU had agreed, that annual access agreements would be reverted to from 2026, but, seemingly at the 11th hour, the prime minister abandoned our fishing communities, our fishing fleets and control of our seas by handing not a three-, four- or even five-year access agreement, but a 12-year multi-annual agreement to the EU.

“He sold out our fishermen to meet his self-imposed deadline for announcing the agreement, and has shown that he will not stand strong for UK fishermen. Can he confirm that parliament will have the final say on the fisheries deal, and that it will not be ratified elsewhere by unelected officials in Whitehall or Brussels?”

Keir Starmer again ignored the access arrangement and focused on trade. “The simple fact of the matter is that, under the agreement the Conservatives struck, it was much more difficult for fishermen to sell into the European market. We are making it much easier – it is 72% of their stock. Shellfish can be sold back into that market again, and we have set up a fund for our fishing communities.

“The alternative, which was to come off the current agreement and then negotiate every year with no certainty at all, would not be good for anyone.”

Andrew George (Lib Dem, St Ives) said fishermen in his constituency were ‘very disappointed’ that EU vessels will continue to have access within the six to 12-mile zone.

He called on the prime minister to ensure that ‘we exercise our right to control the access of vessels in that area, and have control of grandfather rights, kilowatt effort and fishing methods, as well as other regulatory controls, to ensure that the area is properly regulated’.

Western Isles Labour MP Torcuil Crichton said the outcome was ‘a sweet deal for prawn fishermen and shellfish fishermen in Na h-Eileanan an Iar, for salmon producers and for crofters’. He said the real betrayal of fishing communities was that 80% of England’s quota was in ‘the hands of foreign companies or the super-rich’.

“The challenge for the SNP is that 45% of Scotland’s quota is in the hands of a few companies. The challenge for us is to unwind that privatisation of the ocean, and make sure that fishing communities across the UK benefit.”

This story was taken from the latest issue of Fishing News. For more up-to-date and in-depth reports on the UK and Irish commercial fishing sector, subscribe to Fishing News here or buy the latest single issue for just £3.50 here. 

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