Keir Starmer's Brexit reset deal threatens to hand EU £6bn in British fish

A memo from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs provided ministers with an analysis of the "economic benefits and concerns of re-negotiating fisheries policies with the EU".

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One extract of the memo seen by The Telegraph suggested that the EU took between £400million and £500million of landings from UK waters in 2023.

While Downing Street suggested the fishing deal will add £9billion to the economy by 2040 by strengthening links, Brexiteers described it as a betrayal of Britain’s coastal towns and cities.

Former Conservative Environment Minister Sir John Redwood said: "This needless giveaway of our fish will cost us more than just the lost £6billion of fish sales over 12 years.

"There are all the lost jobs in fishing, supporting fishing boats and food processing as well as the lost tax revenues."

While the £6billion figure is a rough projection, chief executive officer of the National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations Mike Cohen described it as a "fair and realistic" estimate.

He told The Telegraph: "The EU has consistently taken around £500million of fish from UK waters annually for a number of years now.

"There is no realistic prospect of renegotiating quota shares, because the only bargaining chip the UK had to negotiate with was access to our waters and the Government has given that away."

"In reality, the only way that the EU will take less value than that is if the fish stocks shrink and quotas are reduced for everyone."

Nigel Farage took aim at the Government over the figures, saying Labour had 'betrayed' communities.

He said: "It is truly astonishing that we have given away a huge sum of money.

"We’ve massively damaged our own industry, stopping future investment in return for absolutely nothing, and our coastal communities feel totally betrayed."

The memo also suggested that ministers were informed Britain could benefit from reducing EU access to UK waters, however, only by a "small" amount.

It stated: "There will possibly be small positive impacts to the UK if access to UK waters was reduced for EU vessels, notably the 6-12nm zone..."

Downing Street specifically denied the £6billion figure, saying communities that relied on the fishing industry would benefit from their new deal.

A Government spokesman said: "This is a made-up figure and not based on any policy that we have with the EU, or would have had under the previous deal."

The statement continued: "Under the previous Brexit deal, EU boats were provided de facto guarantees to UK waters beyond 2026.

"The deal we have secured means we can continue to decide and agree annually the amount EU vessels can catch in our waters, and gives UK fishing communities long-term certainty and stability."

Government sources told The Telegraph it was not possible to forecast the value of EU catches in UK waters for 2026–2038, as this depends on annual quota negotiations, catches of non-quota species and market prices.