'We were meant to be Rentin out of the old deal next year but Starmer has sold us down the river'

'We should be more like France where they stick up for the rights of fishermen. They wouldn't put up with this'

- By Richard Ashmore

SIR Keir Starmer has been slammed for "selling out" British fisherman with a dismal deal that will give EU trawlers access to UK waters for another 12 years.

The Prime Minister agreed to allow European vessels to operate around the British coast until 2038 at what has been dubbed a "surrender summit" in London.

There was no improvement on the 2020 Brexit deal which saw UK fishermen handed just 25% of EU quotas around our coast, and London will still dish out annual quotas for catches with Brussels and Norway.

Sir Keir has said that Monday's deal is "protecting our access, rights and fishing areas with no increase in the amount that EU vessels can catch in British waters".

It also came in exchange for reduced checks and restrictions on UK food exports to the EU.

But Tory leader Kemi Badenoch blasted the agreement, saying it meant "nobody has lost more than the fishermen" and Reform UK's Nigel Farage warned that it would be "the end of the fishing industry".

The fate of the sector is symbolic and emotive, with fishing communities suffering real-world devastation due to the political wrangling by UK ministers and Eurocrats.

It can perhaps be seen most starkly Fleetwood, in Lancs, where just two trawlers are left from a once mighty fleet of around 120 vessels in the 1960s.

A third of the population 11,000 people were once employed directly, and indirectly, by the industry.

The town was hit hard by the socalled Cod Wars of the 1970s, which saw the UK back down to Iceland over fishing rights. The two trawlers in Fleetwood are the Mi Amore and L'Aventurier, skippered and owned by John Worthington, 59, and William "Billy" McGough, 83, respectively.