Keir Starmer's EU deal 'absolutely terrible' for Scottish fishing industry

Keir Starmer’s EU deal is “absolutely terrible” for the Scottish fishing industry, an industry body has said.

The Prime Minister announced a “landmark” reset deal with the EU on Monday.

It included a 12-year fisheries deal that Starmer claimed would bring stability to the industry and guarantees EU fishing vessels the same post-Brexit access to UK waters that they have had until June 2038.

The Scottish Fishermen’s Federation has accused the government of “capitulating” to the EU.

“It sounds like total capitulation, absolutely total capitulation and a massive failure of government”, Elspeth Macdonald.

“Frankly, it makes Keir Starmer just the third prime minister to sell out our fishing industry, but if anything, he’s gone even further than Boris Johnson did with his terrible deal back in 2020. This is even worse.

“I think fishermen will be appalled to think that we will have the EU fleet in our waters for another 12 years.

“No ability to control that, no ability to leverage additional quota from them through annual negotiations. It’s an absolute disaster.”

The UK’s current fishing agreement was set to end in 2026, after which there would have been yearly negotiations.

Starmer said that would have meant “no stability for anyone”, and he insisted that the deal is “good for fishing” by making it easier for fishermen to sell their catch to Europe.

According to Ms Macdonald, the SFF understood there was likely going to be another multi-year deal on the table over the UK, but no one imagined it would be “anything like for 12 years”.

“We have no idea, yet, whether there’s anything on the other side of the ledger from that for fishing. If there’s going to be any quota return to the UK,” she said.

It is understood that there will be no change to current access to fish for coastal communities and no reduction in the British quota or increase in the quota the EU is allowed to catch under the agreement.

The UK will also continue to agree annual quotas with the EU and Norway and issue licences to determine who fishes in its waters.

John Swinney also slammed the fisheries deal, calling the deal a “horror show” for the sector.

The First Minister said the “fishing industry looks as if it’s been surrendered by the United Kingdom Government as part of its negotiations” with the EU.

“It’s always been like this about fishing, because Scotland’s fishing interests have been negotiated away by successive Labour and Conservative governments, and Keir Starmer’s Government is just another example of that,” Swinney said.

While fishing is an area devolved to Scotland, Swinney insisted that his Government had not had sight of “what’s been talked about or what’s been put on the table by the UK Government”.

He added: “I’m very concerned about the lengthening of the agreement around fisheries, which seems to have been extended for another 12 years.

“And that, of course, was the direct opposite of what was promised by Brexit. So once again, the fishing communities of Scotland have suffered as a consequence of negotiations by the United Kingdom Government.”