Brexit reveal: Boris Johnson’s huge upper hand on UK fishing rights exposed

The Scottish fisheries are in high demand at the moment. The EU recently announced that an agreement on the fishing waters is one of its pre-conditions for a post-Brexit Free Trade Agreement – but the UK refused to grant member states access, and declared: “British fishing grounds are first and foremost for British boats.” Yet, the fisheries are also being fought over within the UK, as the SNP have tried to wrestle control of the waters back from Westminster. 

Holyrood has claimed it wants to defend its fisheries against the Commons but, the SNP’s main policy of ‘independence within the EU’ seems to contradict such a stance. Re-joining the bloc would put Scotland back into the hated Common Fisheries Policy, which infuriated fishermen.

A 2018 report from City AM also revealed how Mr Johnson may have a further advantage in the battle over the fisheries against Ms Sturgeon.

At the time, Holyrood had just refused to back Westminster’s Brexit bill and so came up with its own.

This bill dictated which powers the SNP wanted to take back from the EU, to stop various industries going to Westminster – such as the Scottish fisheries.

Yet, according to City AM, the Supreme Court ruled that the farming and fishing industries were “outside of the legislative competence” of the Scottish Parliament.

The article continued: “Most of the Holyrood bill was within its competence, the Supreme Court ruled, but one area which looked to have legislative control over agriculture and fisheries was ruled to be outside it.”

Scottish secretary David Mundell said the result provided “much needed clarity” that the Holyrood bill “goes beyond the powers of the Scottish Parliament”.

Holyrood had branded Westminster’s own withdrawal bill as a “power grab” over areas that it thought should have been devolved once again to Scotland, as they had been in 1999.

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“The UK Government and opponents of the SNP [Scottish National Party] will trumpet this aspect of the ruling.”

The Common Fisheries Policy was a particular sticking point with plenty of Brexiteers, as it dictated where UK fishing boats can fish and how much they can catch, while allowing EU nations to access the British waters too.

The conflict over the Scottish Fisheries resurfaced in a debate between an SNP MP John Nicolson and a Conservative peer only yesterday.

After the SNP MP accused Mr Johnson of “selling fishermen down the river” through his Brexit tactics, Lord Forsyth hit back: “We have voted to leave the EU. Why did we do that? Because we wanted to take control of our own laws and our own fishing grounds.