UK-EU trade talks reach critical moment with Navy boats on standby
Video report by ITV News Political Correspondent Daniel Hewitt
Trade talks between the UK and EU are reaching their final stage, as Boris Johnson signalled he would be willing to send Royal Navy boats to patrol British fishing waters if no deal is reached.
The prime minister and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen set Sunday as the deadline for any negotiations to be concluded.
Mr Johnson has said no deal is "very likely", and four 80-metre armed vessels have been placed on standby to guard British waters from EU fishing boats in the event no agreement is reached on fishing rights after December 31, when the transitional arrangement ends.
On Friday, Mr Johnson met senior minister Michael Gove, who has responsibility for Brexit planning, and other officials to "take stock" of government plans for a no-deal.
It follows reports that German chancellor Angela Merkel and French president Emmanuel Macron rebuffed the Prime Minister three times this week after he made attempts to speak to them directly about the stalled trade discussions.
Brexit trade talks - the sticking points at a glance:
- Fishing rights: The UK wants total control over its own fishing waters after the Brexit transition period ends, with a 12 mile exclusion zone around the British Isles banning all foreign vessels. The EU wants the UK to stick to the Common Fisheries Policy, an EU agreement which gives member nations the rights to fish in European waters - more here.
- Level Playing Field: This is a concept all EU nations agree to, which ensures member nations cannot undercut others by setting their own rules on issues such as the environment, taxation and state aid. The EU says a zero-tariff trade deal is dependent on the UK agreeing to a level playing field. The UK disagrees, saying a fundamental aspect of Brexit is that the UK will be able to set its own rules.
- Governance of a deal: It's likely that any trade deal will eventually result in disputes. The EU wants the European Court of Justice to be the final authority in ruling over disputes. The UK says the ECJ should have no role and final decisions should be made by a bespoke arbiter.
But the statements from both sides suggested that while further discussions would be held, substantial movement on the key issues had not been made.
Fishing has been one of the most contentious issues in the negotiations with the bloc, with France reportedly unhappy with the UK’s proposals for reducing quotas for EU skippers and a short implementation period.
Reciprocal access to each other’s waters will end next year but the two sides are at odds over what will replace the current terms, which the UK fishing industry has long argued leaves them short-changed.
'It's sad we're preparing to square up to a Nato ally': Conservative MP Tobias Ellwood critical of UK stance
Brussels has called for the status quo on fishing rights to continue for 12 months in the event of no-deal – a request that appears to have been rejected after the Government revealed plans to scale up patrols.
Admiral Lord West, a former chief of naval staff, said the Royal Navy should protect UK waters from foreign fishing vessels if asked to do so in a no-deal Brexit scenario.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Lord West said: “It is absolutely appropriate that the Royal Navy should protect our waters if the position is that we are a sovereign state and our Government has said we don’t want other nations there.
“It is absolutely appropriate for the navy to do as it is told by the Government.
“There are complications in that you can push vessels aside, you can cut their fishing tackle but boarding these foreign ships, they’ll need to pass probably a little thing through Parliament to give authority to board and get on them.
“There is no doubt if you are a fisherman who has fished for years there – they are, as our fishermen are, quite stormy people – and you get a bit of a punch-up and you might need some marines and things."
According to the Times, ministers are set to beef up patrol powers by bringing in legislation to allow the Navy to board foreign vessels and arrest fishermen if there is no agreement, in scenes reminiscent of the 1970s Cod Wars.
Conservative MPs have been urging the Prime Minister to ensure that UK waters would be properly protected in the event of the talks collapsing.
Shrewsbury and Atcham MP Daniel Kawczynski tweeted: “In the event of no deal with EU on Sunday we must receive absolute guarantee from Boris Johnson that British naval forces will be deployed from January 1 to prevent illegal French fishing in our waters.”
However Tobias Ellwood, Conservative chairman of the Commons Defence Committee, called the threat of using Royal Navy gun boats to patrol UK waters in a no-deal outcome “irresponsible”.
“We’re facing the undignified prospect right now of our overstretched Royal Navy squaring up to a close Nato ally over fishing vessel rights when we are witnessing an increasing presence of Russian drone activity and subsurface activity – our adversaries must really be enjoying this blue on blue,” the former defence minister told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
“This isn’t Elizabethan times anymore, this is global Britain – we need to be raising the bar much higher than this.”
The MoD said the deployment of the boats had been agreed as part of planning for the end of the transition period.
A spokesman said: “The MoD has conducted extensive planning and preparation to ensure that defence is ready for a range of scenarios at the end of the transition period.”
The Daily Mail reported that Wildcat and Merlin helicopters were also being placed on standby to assist with surveillance of the country’s territorial coast.
The move is likely to be read in Brussels as a shot across the bows as negotiators knuckle down in a bid to secure an agreement this weekend after Mr Johnson and Ms von der Leyen agreed a firm decision was needed on the talks by Sunday.
Chief negotiators Michel Barnier and Lord Frost are set to talk throughout the weekend in Brussels.
Speaking to reporters on a visit to Blyth in Northumberland, Mr Johnson said fishing and a so-called level playing field “ratchet” that would tie the UK to future EU standards were the two major stumbling blocks to a deal.
He said: “There is the whole issue of fish where we’ve got to be able to take back control of our waters. So there is a way to go – we’re hopeful that progress can be made.
“But I’ve got to tell, that from where I stand now, here in Blyth, it is looking very, very likely that we will have to go for a solution that I think would be wonderful for the UK, and we’d be able to do exactly what we want from January.”
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, using the Prime Minister’s own words from 2019 against him, told the Mirror that collapsing the negotiations with Brussels after promising to “get Brexit done” at the general election would represent a “complete failure of statecraft”.
Earlier on Friday in Brussels, Ms von der Leyen said the UK and EU had “not yet found the solutions to bridge our differences” on fisheries.
The Commission president urged the Government to “understand the legitimate expectations of EU fishing fleets built on decades, and sometimes centuries, of access”.