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Michael Gove, environment secretary, faced accusations on Thursday of giving mixed messages about the future of British fisheries after he talked positively about the future potential for foreign vessels to fish in UK waters.
The controversy arose after a Danish newspaper, Finans, said Mr Gove had told leaders of Denmark’s fisheries industry that vessels from the country would be able to operate in British waters after Brexit.
Mr Gove, one of the most vocal supporters of the UK’s departure from the EU, has repeatedly talked up the opportunities for British fishermen in pulling out of the bloc’s common fisheries policy, which gives foreign vessels substantial rights to fish in UK waters. Last month, during a visit to Aberdeen, he promised to withdraw Britain from the 1964 London Fisheries Convention, which lets some foreign vessels fish as close as six miles from the UK coast.
Angus MacNeil, the Scottish National party MP for Na h-Eileanan an Iar, tweeted a screenshot of a translation of the piece and added: Seems a bit different to time he was in Aberdeen.
Tom Brake, the Liberal Democrats’ spokesman on Brexit, said the comments showed up a lie by the Leave campaign. Michael Gove chose to put stopping EU fishing in British waters front and centre of his campaign to leave the EU, yet is now telling Danish fishermen the opposite, Mr Brake said.
But the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Mr Gove’s department, insisted there was no contradiction between Mr Gove’s talking up of the benefits of leaving the common fisheries policy and his remarks in Denmark.
As we have always said, other countries will be able to access our waters, the department said. But, for the first time in 50 years, it will be on our terms and under our control.
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The controversy highlights the sensitivity of questions relating to the fishing industry and Brexit. Bitterness over EU demands on restrictions on catches and allocation of fisheries quotas made British fishing ports some of the most virulently pro-Leave places during last year’s EU referendum.
Ministers have been careful to seek the views of fisheries organisations as they prepare for the industry’s future after Brexit. David Mundell, the Scotland secretary, visited leaders of the Clyde Fishermen’s Association in western Scotland on Thursday while leaders of the Scottish Fishermen’s Association met Robin Walker, a junior minister at the Department for Exiting the EU, last Friday.
Barrie Deas, chief executive of the National Organisation of Fishermen’s Federations, said some in the industry would have taken to heart calls for all foreign vessels to be banned from British waters after Brexit.
But he added: I think the UK will be controlling its own waters. But I think that will be done in a way which includes collaboration with the other countries that share the waters of the North Sea basin.
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