Reform UK’s fisheries spokeswoman June Mummery has launched a scathing attack on post-Brexit fishing arrangements, declaring that fishermen and coastal communities have been “stabbed in the back”.
Speaking to GB News, Mummery expressed deep frustration over what she described as a complete failure to secure meaningful benefits from Brexit for the fishing industry, as today marks the fifth anniversary of Britain’s official exit from the European Union.
“We haven’t taken back in full control of our waters. What did we actually get? We got nothing,” she argued.
Mummery particularly emphasised the impact on coastal communities, where fishing remains the primary industry.
June Mummery has hit out at the Brexit fisheries deal five years on, claiming that the UK got ‘nothing’ from the EU
PA / GB News
“You gave our fisheries away, you sacrificed our coastal communities because, let’s face it, fish is the main industry for coastal communities and coastal folk,” she told GB News.
Five years on from the UK’s exit, the country is facing its first post-Brexit legal battle against the EU following the bloc’s challenge of Britain’s North Sea sandeel fishing ban.
Lawyers for the European Union have taken the UK to an arbitration tribunal over the ban. The EU’s legal representative, Anthony Dawes, said Britain’s “prohibition of all sandeel fishing in its North Sea waters nullifies rights conferred on the European Union”.
Reflecting on the state of the fishing arrangements five years post-Brexit, Mummery expressed disbelief at the decision to relinquish control of British waters.
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“I’ll never understand in a million years what country gives away its waters and the rich resource,” Mummery stated.
“We voted to leave the EU, take back full control of our waters and the rich resource, that was what we voted for,” she said.
Mummery raised significant concerns about the continued presence of EU fishing vessels in British waters. “We’ve still got 1700 EU vessels plundering our oceans,” she claimed.
She warned that these vessels operate without proper oversight, creating potential risks for marine environments.
“They’re not monitored, they’re not regulated. It’s ridiculous, it’s wrong,” she stated.
Mummery told GB News that Britain’s fisherman have been ‘stabbed in the back’
GB News
The Reform UK spokeswoman suggested this situation has put marine ecosystems at risk. “We have put our Mother Nature and the ocean in grave danger,” Mummery warned.
She highlighted concerns about offshore wind farms, noting that British waters’ resources were being controlled by foreign interests.
“Whether it is fish, aggregate, wind, we don’t own any of those offshore wind companies, they’re all foreign owned as well. So we’ve given our ocean away,” she said.
The former Brexit Party MEP even called for dramatic political change to address these issues. “The only way we will ever take back full control of our waters and that rich resource is to get that lot in Parliament out, end off,” she declared.