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MSP warns that fishing industry will be left in "worse place" after Brexit deal


By Kirsty Brown

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Banffshire and Buchan Coast MSP Stewart Stevenson has warned the Brexit deal agreed between the UK Government and European Union will leave the fishing industry in a “worse place” than the Common Fisheries Policy.

Speaking during the Scottish Parliament’s debate on the Brexit deal reached last week, Mr Stevenson warned despite many promises offered to senior Tories about Brexit, the sector had left them with a raw deal.

The Brexit deal will pass into law at 11pm tonight after it was passed following a recall of MPs to the House of Commons to vote on it.

A number of prominent voices from the fishing sector have spoken out against the deal since it was announced.

MSP Stewart Stevenson.
MSP Stewart Stevenson.

Commenting, Banffshire and Buchan Coast MSP Stewart Stevenson said: “This is a shabby deal which will put our fishermen in a worse place than they have been for decades.

“Both Douglas Ross and David Duguid met with members of the fishing industry time and time again and promised them their vital sector would not be sold out by the UK Government.

“For the fish which are most important to us in the north-east – cod and haddock – the quota will decrease.

“This is why skippers from my constituency have been saying that this deal is worse than membership of the common fisheries policy.

"It is not a better deal.

“Boris Johnson and his Tory Government promised the fishing industry they would be given control of 100 percent of catch as an independent coastal state when we left the European Union.

"Instead it will be less than 25 percent.

“This is a shoddy deal and while the EU has got everything it wanted the fishing industry in the north-east and across Scotland has been left worse off than it was as a member of the CFP.”


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