‘It’s a betrayal’: Cornish fishing vote turns against Tories over Brexit deal // French fishermen threaten to block Calais port over Brexit dispute

 

‘It’s a betrayal’: Cornish fishing vote turns against Tories over Brexit deal

In Newlyn, anger at red tape and the falling price of fish looks certain to be felt at council polls

 

Michael Bosustow: ‘We are not going to forget when it comes to voting time.’

 

Tom Wall

Sun 25 Apr 2021 10.15 BST

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/apr/25/its-a-betrayal-cornish-fishing-vote-turns-against-tories-over-brexit-deal?CMP=fb_gu&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR3JVT9S2n5eD6a_3Xa9Y98xCJzYfgDM1m2BNWUEel8xt9Wi6awWDzlDjF8#Echobox=1619342751

 

Michael Bosustow rubs his weary eyes as he climbs out of the cabin of his netter, Annie-May, which is tied up on the harbourside in Newlyn, near the western tip of Cornwall. He has been awake for about 30 hours and needs to prepare for another couple of days at sea. But he can still summon the energy to condemn the Conservative party for striking a deal with the EU that he – like many in this tight-knit fishing town – regards as a betrayal.

 

“We are dying out here – we are all getting older and there aren’t enough youngsters following us,” he says as the pale spring sun rises and gusts of cool Atlantic wind flap Cornish flags. “We could have got more fish and created a better future for the youngsters. It’s a missed opportunity.”

 

The UK-EU trade agreement, which came into force in January, gives British boats a greater share of fish that can be caught in UK waters, but also allows European boats to fish in those waters until at least 2026, with many in the industry expecting that to continue for years to come. Border hold-ups and requirements to purify shellfish before export to the EU have hit earnings and led to some consignments being left to rot.

 

The struggles of the fishing industry could pose problems for the Conservatives in Cornwall in crucial council elections next month – the first electoral test since the pandemic hit over a year ago. Although the Tories are the largest single group in the council chamber – Cornwall has a unitary authority for the whole county – the Liberal Democrats were able to regain control by forming a coalition with independent councillors in 2017.

 

Those hoping to deliver Boris Johnson’s goal of a Conservative-led council in time for the G7 summit in Cornwall in June will have to tread carefully in places like Newlyn, which is home to England’s biggest fishing fleet.

 

Bosustow, 48, a Brexit supporter, will not be supporting the Tories on 6 May. “We are not going to forget when it comes to voting time,” he says. “I don’t feel like they [the Conservatives] deserve my vote at the moment.”

 

Further down the quay, Brackan Pearce, 28, is restocking his trawler. He travelled up the Thames as part of a flotilla of fishing boats demanding control of British waters during the referendum campaign in 2016. Now he feels betrayed. “They lied to us. They’ve used us to get Brexit. Without the boats going up the Thames, Brexit would never have happened,” he says from the deck of his boat.

 

The deal, he says, is the worst of all worlds. “It’s a complete sellout. It’s a betrayal. The deal we have got is lose-lose. We have got friction at the borders and they [EU fishing boats] have still got access to our waters.” Johnson has lost his support: “I can’t vote Conservative.”

 

Newlyn’s fishers and fish merchants survived the near-complete shutdown of the hospitality industry during the pandemic by selling more to shops and direct to the public. But Brexit has caused a whole new set of problems, because 80% of the catch they land usually gets exported to Europe.

 

The port’s harbour master, Rob Parsons, has seen the impact of border checks and delays up close. “Fishermen would say it has been ‘a lash-up’ – it means it’s been really bad,” he says, perched on a wall outside his small office. “In January, next-day delivery became two to three days and that hugely impacted on the price.”

 

Prices for some fish fell to the point where they were not worth catching. “Hake is normally about £5 to £6 a kilo. It fluctuates daily but we’re down to 60p,” says Parsons over the squawk of gulls. “In order to make a trip – one boat going out for five days – you need to clear £2.20 a kilo.”

 

Outside the port, there are many in Newlyn who share the fishers’ frustrations. On a park bench, below the colourful jumble of cottages and terraces rising up the hill, two neighbours, who typically vote Conservative, are considering voting for other parties. “The fishermen have been shat on,” says Helen Lugg, 47, a chef, who has lived in Newlyn all her life. “For working villages like this which rely on fishing, it’s bad.”

 

The port is a constant presence in their lives even though they don’t work in the fishing industry. “Each boat that goes out we watch for it to come back in,” says Jan Crawford, 62. “They work hard and risk a lot.” She will not be voting Tory in May. “We were lied to,” she says. “I used to be Conservative but not any more.”

 

The village’s current Conservative councillor, Roger Harding, who is not standing again, also believes the fishers’ frustrations may cost his party. “They will lose votes over it,” he says in the gloomy office of the car showroom he owns near the port. “In a way, the fishermen were expecting something that couldn’t be delivered, but certainly there is unhappiness. They will be showing their discontent.”

 

However, the two main candidates vying for the newly created Mousehole, Newlyn and St Buryan electoral division are avoiding the political fallout from the deal. The Lib Dems’ energetic newcomer, Thalia Marrington, is keen to help the port prosper outside the EU, but is steering clear of issues connected to Brexit. “It’s been so divisive. To me it’s happened – we need to move on. I literally don’t mention it,” she says, pushing her bike stuffed with leaflets through the village.

 

The Conservative candidate William Bolitho, another newcomer, is saddened that some in Newlyn won’t be turning out for the party. “I’m disappointed by it,” he says, on his farm in the windswept hills above the village. But he adds that he understands their frustrations: “They didn’t get what they expected and I do feel for them.”

 

French fishermen threaten to block Calais port over Brexit dispute

 

Fishermen say Brexit deal promise ‘turned out to be a lie.’

 

BY CLEA CAULCUTT, GIORGIO LEALI AND ESTHER WEBBER

April 23, 2021 2:13 pm

https://www.politico.eu/article/french-fishermen-threaten-to-block-calais-port-over-brexit-dispute/

 

PARIS — Major French trade unions are threatening to block the port of Calais within 15 days if fishermen do not receive licenses from the U.K. to operate in British waters.

 

“All the fishermen agree that if we don’t receive a positive response, we will have to increase the pressure,” said Stéphane Pinto, of the CFTD, one of two unions to make the threat (the other being the CFTC). “We have to hit British exports to Calais, the tunnel and the ferry.”

 

“We were told we would get our licenses within four to five days and we’ve been waiting four months, so giving them 15 days is enough,” he said. 

 

A blockade on the port of Calais would cause severe disruptions for British exporters who have already been hit by extra costs and paperwork due to Brexit. 7,500 to 8,500 trucks travel through the Calais port on a daily basis.

 

On Thursday night, French fishermen staged a protest over the issue in the northern town of Boulogne-sur-Mer. Around 150 protesters blocked trucks carrying fish from U.K. waters from entering Europe’s largest seafood processing center.

 

Only 22 of the 120 boats operating out of Boulogne-sur-Mer have obtained licenses to fish in British waters, according to the regional fisheries committees. Under the Brexit deal with the U.K., French fishermen can apply for licenses to carry on fishing in British waters but conditions set for qualifying for a license have proven difficult for many to meet. Fishermen must show that they have been fishing in U.K. waters from 2012 to 2016 using GPS data.

 

“The promise of a deal we had has turned out to be a lie,” said Pinto. “I don’t know who was deceitful, but we would have preferred a no-deal because at least we would have had the whole of the EU behind us trying to find a solution.”

 

The UK however says it has issued licenses to all the vessels that that met their criteria and has said the fishing protests were “unjustified.”

 

“We take an evidence-based approach to licensing fishing vessels using the information provided by the European Commission,” the U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s official spokesman said, “we do not recognize the figures shared by the French fishing industry.”

 

The EU commission says only 20 European applications for the access to British waters are still pending. "The Commission received and notified to the UK 108 requests for authorisation, out of which 88 have meanwhile received a licence. These 108 requests cover all relevant regions in France, not only Hauts-de-France [the Calais region]," a spokesperson for the Commission said.

 

The devil is in the details

The EU commission on Friday said it was in contact with the British authorities to resolve the dispute.

 

“The top priority when it comes to fishing is to make sure that we have these licence applications that are all dealt immediately,” said a Commission’s spokesperson, “For us, this is indeed an urgency.”

 

Thursday, France’s Europe Minister Clément Beaune and the Fisheries Minister Annick Girardin called on the EU commission to take “firm and determined” action to get the U.K. to apply the Brexit deal.

 

At the heart of the dispute is whether the criteria agreed in the withdrawal agreement make it difficult for fishermen to qualify for licenses, or whether the British are dragging their feet in delivering licenses.

 

French fishermen acknowledge the British are right when it comes to the small print of the withdrawal agreement, but say they don’t respect the spirit of the deal.

 

“The global deal looked superb, but it was too good to be true,” says Olivier Leprêtre, president of the regional fisheries committee in the Hauts-de-France. “When we started sifting through the 1,200 pages of the agreement, we realized that there are lots of blocking criteria. Ultimately, we have been almost completely excluded from British waters."

 

Leprêtre says criteria on netting, fish species and fishing zone demarcation are particularly problematic.

 

According to the EU commission, there is no specific tool in the EU-U.K. post-Brexit agreement to tackle a blockage on fishing licenses, apart from the general dispute settlement mechanism.

 

'Profits have plunged'

Fishermen in Boulogne-sur-Mer say they need access to British waters because the Channel is at its narrowest and busiest between France and the U.K.

 

“Profits have plunged since mid-January, fishermen here have lost 60 to 70 percent of their revenue,” says Leprêtre.

 

“The problems are only getting worse. We can’t access British waters, but neither can the Dutch nor the Belgians,” said Leprêtre. “And so they are pushed into French waters, which is putting a lot of pressure on our stocks.”

 

 

Meanwhile the European Commission cleared €100 million of French aid to the fisheries sector to compensate revenue losses caused by Brexit on Friday.

 

“The fisheries sector is one of the most affected by Brexit, requiring fishermen and downstream market operators in affected Member States to re-organise and adapt to the new situation,” the EU competition chief Margrethe Vestager said in a statement.