Minister Refuses to Rule Out Scrapping Annual Fishing Quotas for EU Boats – Guido Fawkes

Minister Refuses to Rule Out Scrapping Annual Fishing Quotas for EU Boats

Keir Starmer is cosying up to EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in London today ahead of May’s EU-UK summit. Tory MP Alex Burghart asked EU Minister Nick Thomas-Symonds in the Commons this morning whether he’d rule out dropping the UK’s right to annual negotiations on fishing quotas – one of Brexit’s cornerstone victories. He refused:

“We will of course negotiate in the interests, uh, of our fishes and indeed implement our rights in terms of marine protections. I’m not going to give a running commentary on the negotiations.”

Currently EU boats are only allowed to catch 75% of what they could pre-Brexit in British waters – an agreement set to expire next year. As reported earlier this week, Starmer’s backing a multi-year deal that scraps annual talks and freezes quotas – opening the floodgates for EU boats to flood British waters once again. Burghart also grilled Thomas-Symonds on whether EU AI regulations would apply in Northern Ireland. Again he refused to rule that out. Starmer’s handover of British sovereignty continues…