Ministers ‘should be less strident with France’ over fishing rights says former Yorkshire MEP

Lord Timothy Kirkhope of Harrogate warned that Yorkshire fisherman could be “ten times” worse off if the ongoing row leads to fewer British products being sold on the other side of the Channel.

Yesterday, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said that the UK would not “roll over” in the face of “unreasonable” threats from the French as Paris threatened to introduce more border checks and bar some British fishing boats from French waters from today over a dispute regarding licenses.

Lord Kirkhope, who was a Member of the European Parliament for Yorkshire and the Humber between 1999 and 2016, told The Yorkshire Post: “I get a bit fed up of this subject because it’s an unnecessary spat.

“The annoying thing about this is that with a little bit of administrative easing and common sense we should be able to sort this out.”

Former Conservative Minister Lord Kirkhope warned the Government away from damaging the “trustworthiness” of Britain when it comes to being strident with the EU, and went on: “Our reaction should not be as strident as it is. This is an issue that should be sorted at the level of administrators, rather than Prime Ministers and Presidents.”

He also expressed concern about the damage this dispute could have on the livlihoods of Yorkshire trawlers, pointing to the local lobster trade and adding: “If we want to play around with this one and make trouble so that the French react then our fishermen will be ten times worse off because that fish needs to be sold.”

The fishing row adds to the tensions around UK-European Union relations, with the dispute over the Brexit deal’s Northern Ireland Protocol also causing a diplomatic row with Brussels.

The dispute with France was triggered by decisions made by the authorities in the UK and Jersey over licences for small French boats to operate in British waters, with officials arguing permission can only be given to vessels which can demonstrate a history of fishing there.

Last night, Downing Street said that there are “robust” measures in place should the French authorities carry out their threats after the November 2 deadline.

A No 10 spokesman told reporters: “As you would expect, we have robust contingency plans in place.

“I’m not going to get into the detail of them here.

“It is the French that made these threats and we are continuing to call for them to step back from those threats.”

Meanwhile, the owner of a local family business has said that Jersey is being used as a “pawn in the political game between France and the UK”.

Tony Porritt, who has owned shellfish exporter Aqua-Mar Fisheries for more than 50 years, said the current situation is frustrating.

Mr Porritt said that for a time yesterday he had to stop accepting shellfish from local fishermen amid fears that it would not be sold on and then exported to France.

“It’s the French government, it’s political.

“We have navigated through Brexit, we have navigated through Covid and now we have got this.”