Brexit fisheries power grab

MP Angus Brendan MacNeil is urging the UK government to resist a power grab of Scottish fisheries after Brexit.

He wants the Scottish government to be allowed to negotiate on behalf of Scottish fishermen to stop them “being betrayed by the UK Government as happened when the UK joined the European Union.”

Mr Macneil - who is the SNP’s fisheries spokesperson at Westminster - said a World Trade Organisation deal will result in damage to GDP of 8% - four times the damage caused by the economic crash.

Based on these figures Brexit is an “all-round unmitigated disaster,” he says.

Mr MacNeil believes the “only mitigating area” is in fisheries, but the UK government is in “danger of giving that away.”

Westminster must get fisheries “off the Brexit table.”

He slammed any attempt to use this “vital Scottish industry as a bargaining chip.”

The MP said: “Power over fishing needs to be given to the Scottish Government to prevent Scottish interests in this industry being negotiated away.

“The UK government have had very little to say on fisheries. They have acknowledged that they have been dodging questions I have asked them in the House of Commons, about who will get the increased tonnage they say they will take from the European Union and when the benefits of this will be seen.”

MacNeil fears fisheries “power grab” over Brexit

14 March 2018