Luke Pollard, the Shadow Environment Secretary, has responded to the government’s new Environment Bill, release today.

Luke Pollard said:

“The new Fisheries Bill is not going to deliver what the government is promising. Simply sexing up what Theresa May proposed on fisheries isn’t going to reassure fishing communities who feel very concerned that the promises they’ve been given won’t be delivered upon.

 

What this Bill does confirm is that the future of fishing will be determined not by this new law but by the EU trade negotiations where fishing access could be traded for financial services, automotive and aerospace.

 

This Bill confirms the worst fear of fishers that they’re about to be sold out.

 

Instead of banking everything on beefed up language in the Fisheries Bill, this government should use the powers it already has to redistribute fishing quota from big, foreign-owned multinationals, to small boats which are the backbone of the British fishing fleet in every single region and nation of the UK. They could go further and require the lion’s share of fish caught under a UK quota to be landed in a UK port creating jobs around our coastline.”