Nigel Farage vows to kick EU fishermen out of UK waters in Reform bombshell

Nigel Farage has vowed to kick EU fishermen out of British waters in a move which will come as a major boost to many who campaigned to take back control of British waters after Brexit.

The Reform UK leader outlined his vision in his party's manifesto, Our Contract with You, launched today in Merthyr Tydfil in south Wales.

The document pledges to - among other things - stop EU fleets taking British quotas; expand the Royal Navy overseas squadron; and ban massive supertrawlers such as the Dutch-flagged Margeris from plundering UK waters.

The document proclaims the the UK government has "betrayed the industry".

It also states says that the party will "end automatic access to UK waters.

It explains: "Every foreign fishing vessel must pay for a licence to gain access to the UK is 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone as designated under United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea."

The party would also "stop foreign owners using British flags of convenience".

It adds: "Quota reforms needed to help small scale fishing."

On the subject of controlling British waters, Reform says it will "police Britain's 200 mile EEZ properly" and "assess the possibility of creating a dedicated Coast Guard or fisheries protection agency".

In terms of so-called supertrawlers, the document vows to "Extend the ban on pair trawling for bass beyond the South East and 12-mile territorial waters and "ban Dutch vessels from electric poles fishing in Britain’s 200 mile EEZ".

Other major commitments include:

• Rebuilding UK Fish Processsing by with tax and other incentives "to ensure that all fish caught in British waters are landed and processed in the UK. Fish caught by foreign vessels in UK waters will need to be "landed and processed here when capacity allows"
  
  
• Revitalising the UK's fishing fleet with tax incentives and vocational training to increase UK fishing fleets including fishing communities in policy-making
  
  
• Guaranteeing sustainable stocks by implementing a dynamic management system and working with national and regional partners such as the North East Atlantic Fisheries Commission.

In seeking to ban supertrawlers, Mr Farage is likely to win an unlikely ally in the form of environmental pressure group Greenpeace, which is in particular concerned about the activities of such huge ships in Marine Protection Areas (MPAs), the umbrella term for places at sea which are meant to be protected from environmentally damaging activity.

Speaking in 2020, Chris Thorne, Oceans Campaigner at Greenpeace UK, said: “Our Government allowing destructive supertrawlers to fish for thousands of hours every year in Marine Protected Areas makes a mockery of the word ‘protected’.

"Even an hour of supertrawler activity inside an ecologically sensitive marine environment is too much, let alone almost 3000.

"For our Government to be taken seriously as a leader in marine protection, it must ban supertrawler operations in the UK’s Marine Protected Areas."

Speaking at the launch, Mr Farage acknowledged that Reform UK would not form the government after the July 4 General Election - but he said it was the first step on the road to the next contest which could be in 2029.

Speaking in Merthyr Tydfil he said: "We are not pretending that we are going to win this General Election, we are a very, very new political party."

He added: "This is not something with which we're going to govern the country. That's not possible in this election.

"Although this election is for our party, and for me, the first important step on the road to 2029.

"Our ambition is to establish a bridgehead in Parliament, and to become a real opposition to a Labour government."

He said the Tories would not be able to provide opposition because "they spend most of their days arguing among themselves, and they're split down the middle when it comes to policy".