TERRITORIAL WATERS

It is now three years since the EU referendum, when the British voted to leave the EU. Nothing has happened, other than we are no longer invited to many EU meetings. We have not left the EU nor taken back control of anything. The payments to the EU continue undisturbed.

We have not even taken back control of our territorial integrity. Britain’s fishing waters remain under EU control. There is no justifiable reason for that. Whatever problems there may be relating to the Irish backstop, those problems do not preclude Britain governing its own territorial waters.

As is examined in Turbo Brexit (pages 18 and 33 to 35), the May Government has no intention of re-establishing control of Britain’s fishing grounds. They are keen to retain EU involvement and to sacrifice Britain’s fishing industry. The talk is of ‘putting in place new arrangements for annual negotiations on access to waters and the sharing of fishing opportunities’. Were we to take back control of our own fishing grounds, then we would not be negotiating anything. We would be deciding.

While Michael Gove, the minister responsible, was excusing the commitment to keep Britain in the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) during the proposed transition period by promising that ‘in December 2020, we will be negotiating fishing opportunities as … an independent coastal state, deciding who can access our waters and on what terms’, a leaked draft of a Fisheries White Paper showed that the government intended to continue the status quo even after the transition period.

Once again, we were being lied to.

The value of fish caught by EU vessels in British waters is more than four-times the value of the fish caught by British vessels in EU waters. This is a massive imbalance and membership of the CFP is not in Britain’s interests.

It should be noted that Donald Tusk has already demanded: ‘In fisheries, reciprocal access to fishing waters and resources should be maintained.’ The French president has also threatened to bounce Britain into the Irish backstop if he does not get his own way on fishing.

This is totally unacceptable for any self-respecting, sovereign country.

There is no reason why Britain should be trying to do everything all at once in one bombastic treaty – assuming that we do not simply repeal the 1972 European Communities Act and leave (as should be the policy). If there is a problem with a big treaty, then perhaps Britain’s exit from the EU should be piecemeal, and it would be a good idea to start with fishing.

No matter what form the votes may next take in the House of Commons, there should be an amendment, or a proposal, that Britain immediately exit the CFP unilaterally. That we immediately retake full control of our own territorial waters and fishing grounds.

This would be a clear first step towards taking back control.