Britain’s fishing industry voted overwhelmingly to leave the EU – now it feels ‘betrayed’ by May’s Brexit proposals
Britain’s £1-billion fishing industry, which voted overwhelmingly to leave the EU, says it feels “betrayed” by the current course of Brexit negotiations. A poll before the referendum suggested 92% of fishermen would vote to leave the EU, but many are now worried about Theresa May’s plan to roll over the EU’s much-maligned Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) into UK law. The CFP sets rules for how many fish each EU country’s boats can land. Several politicians have warned that dropping the policy will not benefit the industry, but most fishermen disagreed, believing that its restrictions are the cause of a rapidly declining UK fleet. But Prime Minister Theresa May intends to introduce a ‘Great Repeal Bill’ in the wake of Brexit, which will roll over all EU law into UK law – including the CFP. Alan Hastings, a spokesman for Brexit campaign group ‘Fishing For Leave,’ told Business Insider that the proposal risks “throwing the industry under a bus.” “It’s the equivalent of being told you’re leaving prison and then being told you’re actually staying. If we adopt the CFP, it will squander the opportunity that Brexit provides to rebuild the UK fishing industry,” he said. Read the story here 08:28
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