Sir Keir defends EU deal Hartlepool fisherman called Brexit betrayal

A life-long fisherman working off the North Sea from Hartlepool accused the Sir Keir Starmer of “giving away our fisheries again” after a new EU trade deal opened up access to our waters for another 12 years for boats from the bloc.

The deal ends uncertainty, allows British fishermen to work in EU waters and sell their catch to into the trade bloc more cheaply, the PM claims.

But Hartlepool-based fisherman Paul Widdowfield, 62, told the Echo: “It doesn’t affect me or any boat in Hartlepool, or any boat that I know of in the North East.

Hartlepool fisherman Paul Widdowfield. (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT) “There’s nobody fishing European waters. The big boys, it will benefit them but not the inshore fishermen.

“What we voted for with Brexit, it’s just gone out of the window. It’s 100 per cent a betrayal.

“We thought we were getting our 200 mile point the same as Iceland which would have been marvellous. It’s just Mr Starmer has given our fisheries away again.

“They’ve done this with no consultation.”

European trawlers will be allowed to keep working in our waters until 2037 after a new trade deal was agreed this week. After Brexit their rights were due to be reviewed yearly.

Sir Keir Starmer said: “The deal we’ve got at the moment ensures EU vessels can come into our waters in some numbers but equally we can fish in their waters. Next year that was going to go to an annual negotiation so it wasn’t coming to an end, which just means it’s incredibly uncertain, which I don’t think really works for fisherman.

Sir Keir Starmer. (Image: CHRIS BOOTH) “What we’ve done is put it on a stable basis but perhaps most importantly is that we by striking the SPS agreement with the EU which will reduce all the bureaucracy, red tape and therefore the cost of fish going into the EU market.

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“We’ve got an agreement which will massively reduce the cost to fishermen of selling into the EU market. Seventy-plus per cent of their catch is sold into Europe so this is actually a really good deal for fishermen because they can sell their catch more cheaply into the EU market. That increases their profits and sustainability.

“We’ve put in place a fund over £100m to help fishermen take maximum advantage of the deal and that will be money coming into the pockets of working at the communities of fishermen in the NE and we will be talking to them and certainly consulting them about how we and they make best use of that money.”

He echoed Environment Secretary Steve Reed who told a Parliamentary committee this week that there was “no downside” to the deal for fishers.