Fishermen fear PM will sell out industry

BRITISH fishermen fear their industry could be sold out by Keir Starmer ahead of a UK-EU deal seen by many as a Brexit betrayal.

- Charlie Bradley

Matty Smith, from the small town of Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, first went out on a boat when he was 12. After immediately “falling in love”, the skipper has since enjoyed a 40-year career in the fishing industry.

Leigh has made a name for itself as a fishing hub for nearly a thousand years, according to historical records, and the boats moored by the old town serve as a proud reminder of this history.

But, the thriving industry that helped put Leigh on the map is now a distant memory for Matty and his colleagues.

‘It will be used as a bargaining chip’

“It’s quite bad at the moment,” he told the Express. “We've got a port in Rye that is on a massive decline and it’s the same here.”

Britain’s once-booming fishing industry is now embattled in many parts of the country, and many fishermen place the blame squarely on the European Union (EU).

The bloc introduced the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) in 1983 to manage fish stocks, setting the EU and UK on a decades-long collision course, culminating in the Brexit referendum of 2016.

Matty, like most fishermen, voted to leave the bloc in the hope that this would finally see Britain take back control of its waters.

Fast-forward to 2025, and European boats are still plundering British waters up to six miles from the coast.

“We've got a problem, but it is worth saving,” Matty said. “One thing we don’t want to do is keep extending and giving away the rights of our national asset. It is the people’s money who live in this country and it’s the people’s food security.