Keir Starmer accused of £775million EU fishing stitch-up in Brexit betrayal (2024)

The UK's Brexit fisheries deal will be renegotiated in 2026 (Image: Getty)

Sir Keir Starmer’s plans for a closer relationship with the European Union could “short change” fishermen by £775 million, Shadow Environment Secretary Steve Barclay has warned.

The Tory former Government successfully negotiated a significant uplift in quota shares for British vessels following Brexit.

This means EU boats are still allowed to fish in UK waters but UK boats have a greater share of the catch.

Now Steve Barclay has said a return to the old quota could cost fishermen millions of pounds.

The former Environment Secretary said: “British vessels now have 120,000 tonnes more quota a year than we would have had as members of the EU.

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“But Keir Starmer’s plans for a closer relationship with the EU could mean giving in to Brussels’ demands for greater access to our fishing waters.

“This would be a crushing blow to our fishing communities who would be short-changed to the tune of around £775 million over this parliament.”

The Brexit fisheries deal will be renegotiated by 2026 under Sir Keir’s government.

He has touted a “reset” with the EU and met with several European leaders within days of becoming Prime Minister.

Sir Keir has said he wants a broad new security agreement with the EU.

But Berlin wants to turn the British prime minister’s proposed security pact into a Brexit mega deal, including agricultural rules.

Germany’s ambassador to the U.K. Miguel Berger said: “We very much welcome the initiative of a security pact. It’s not only security, it’s broader: so I would call it a Security and Cooperation Agreement between the U.K. and the European Union.”

“We have a headline, which is security and cooperation. And beneath that, we think we should look for areas which are in the common interest.”

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Sir Keir has moved quickly to build ties with Germany since taking office on July 5, meeting with Chancellor Olaf Scholz three times in just 10 days — first at a NATO summit in Washington, then at the Euros final in Berlin, and again at the European Political Community (EPC) summit in Oxfordshire.

He told MPs Commons last week that he detected an “appetite” for negotiations.

Speaking about the EPC summit at Blenheim Palace, the Prime Minister said: “I was able to have early discussion about the EU-UK trade arrangements of a preliminary sort. There is an appetite for that discussion—no one pretends that it is an easy discussion.”

A spokeswoman for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: “This government will always back our great British fishing industry. We will seek to tear down unnecessary trade barriers that block our fishing exports and boost fishing opportunities for British vessels.”

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