Local MSP Maree Todd has expressed serious concerns about what may happen to the fishing industry during the UK’s negotiations to leave the EU.

Maree Todd said:

“Theresa May seems more concerned over the wishes of Spanish fishermen than Scottish fishing communities. Both in her keynote Brexit speech and now in the Brexit white paper she specifically refers to the importance of Scottish waters to the EU fishing industry, suggesting that fishing is one of the areas which she is willing to give concessions on. That is totally unacceptable and is causing a lot of concern among local fishing communities.

“Our fishing communities are concerned that the only thing to survive Brexit will be the much maligned Common Fisheries Policy – that would be the worst case scenario for our fishing industry.”

The UK Government is set to trigger Article 50 at the end of March with a period of 2 years before we leave the EU. Negotiations cannot begin until Article 50 is triggered.

Ian Gatt, President of the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation, has expressed serious concerns about access to UK fishing grounds being used as a bargaining chip in any trading deal negotiated with the EU after Brexit.

Giving evidence to the Scottish Parliament’s CTEER committee, Ian Gatt, said ‘the key issue is access to our resource’ and that UK fishing grounds cannot be traded off for access to the EU single market.

The majority of Scottish fish, £450million, is sold to the EU single market.