Reports indicate that UK prime minister Keir Starmer has made huge concessions to the European Union over access to fisheries, ahead of talks on Monday, May 19th.
Part of ongoing ‘reset’ talks with Brussels, the latest deal is expected to run for 12 years—contrary to the wishes of the millions of people who voted to take Britain out of the EU in 2016 and subsequent elections.
Quizzed over the agreement’s unexpected 12-year duration, Secretary of State for Business and Trade Jonathan Reynolds was tight-lipped. The fishing industry will object, already seeing the previous agreement negotiated by Boris Johnson as too generous.
Nigel Farage, leader of Reform UK, sees it, if true, as “the end of the fishing industry.“ As his former spokesman Gawain Towler explains:
12 years is essentially permanent as the older fishermen will leave the industry, and there will be no younger ones joining, and no investment in new boats.
This is literally the death knell.
