West Country MPs put pressure on the Government over post-Brexit fishing

For some time now fishing has been a poster industry of Brexit, with many believing it has been hard done by whilst we have been members of the European Union.

In Westminster today a number of South West MPs took part in a debate lead by South East Cornwall Conservative Sheryll Murray who called on the Government to not give in to what she says is the EU's 'unacceptable' fishing demands.

Both Brixham and Newlyn's fishing ports are the largest in England in terms of the value and quantity of the fish they land, but according to recent figures the overall value of fish landed in the UK has decreased.

The Government says the UK will become an Independent Coastal State at the end of this year (after the Brexit transition period) and that it will be able to control who fishes in UK waters and how much they can fish.

Ministers want to have annual negotiations about access for EU boats and over time reduce the access to them, allowing the UK fleet to increase in size.

The EU, however has other ideas and says that access to water needs to be agreed as part of a wider Free Trade Deal between the two sides.

That implies that it won't be happy with annual agreements on quota, instead preferring to keep the situation the same as now.

Today's debate will prove to the Government the strength of feeling of MPs of a number of political parties about how fishing should be treated outside of the European Union - for now the Government agrees with many of their ideas.

One thing is for sure is that the negotiations will not be easy - they're due to start next month