Andrew Locker, chairman of the National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations (NFFO), said many fishing businesses would be “absolutely worse off by this deal”.
The share of fish in British waters that the UK can catch will rise from about half now to two-thirds by the end of the five-and-a-half-year transition, during which EU and UK fishing vessels will be permitted access to each other’s waters.
The draft agreement, released on Boxing Day morning, contains numerous pages dedicated entirely to fishing policy in the UK and EU’s new relationship, and asserts the “sovereign rights” of EU states and the UK “for the purpose of exploring, exploiting, conserving and managing the living resources in their waters”.
However it also includes a line on “the social and economic benefits of a further period of stability, during which fishers would be permitted until June 30 2026 to continue to enter the waters of the other party”.
Mr Locker said he was not aware of any allowance in the trade deal for UK firms to trade fish quotas with EU countries, which is a crucial part of how the industry manages it catch.
He said many fishing firms would go out of business by the end of the transition in 2026, telling the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: “We are really, really going to struggle this year.”
Mr Locker added: “When Boris Johnson and his government promised Brexit to the fishermen, he promised none of us would be worse off. And I can sit here now and tell you there is a considerable amount of fishing industry representatives and people, fisherman, small families, small communities, absolutely worse off by this deal.”
He said UK negotiators had won a “fraction” of the fishing quotas they had promised and warned about the prospect of having to revisit the deal when the transition period ends in 2026, describing it as a “can of worms”.
“When we were within the EU we used to trade fish with the EU and we used to swap fish that we didn’t use with fish they didn’t use, and that enabled us to put together an annual fishing plan,” he said. “What we’ve got now is a fraction of what we were promised through Brexit, a fraction of the fish we need to fish our annual fisheries plan through Brexit.”
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Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove rejected claims that Britain’s fishermen would be worse off.
“This staged process gives us a chance to increase the size of the fleet, to invest in our coastal communities, and, of course, in due course we will have that opportunity to increase that quota even further,” he said.
On Saturday, the chief executive of the NFFO, Barrie Deas, accused Mr Johnson of having “bottled it” on fishing quotas to secure only “a fraction of what the UK has a right to under international law”.
Mr Deas said the prime minister had “sacrificed” fishing to other priorities, with the subject proving to be an enduring sticking point during negotiations
Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, also accused the Conservatives of having “sold out Scottish fishing all over again” in the Brexit treaty.
A senior member of the UK’s negotiating team defended the agreement, and described fish as “one of the areas where we had to compromise somewhat”, but said this had been done by “both sides”.
The official said: “The crucial thing on fisheries policy is that although there is a transition, at the end of the transition it returns to normal arrangements, and we have full control over our waters.
“There’s a transition to that point and ideally we would’ve got out of it a bit faster, but where we’ve got to is acceptable and offers gains for the fisheries industry in the short run and a huge right to control everything and work within that after this five-and-a-half-year transition.”
