A third of the Scottish fishing fleet is tied up in harbour and losing £1 million a week because of Brexit red tape, the SNP has claimed.
Ian Blackford, the SNP Westminster leader, accused Boris Johnson of selling out the “sea of opportunity” which Scottish fishermen’s leaders trumpeted would be the result of Brexit.
At Prime Minister’s Questions in the Commons the Ross, Skye and Lochaber MP highlighted the case of a seafood exporter in his constituency who had lost a £40,000 load of seafood this week because of “Brexit red tape” was causing fresh and high quality produce to be lost.
Blackford said that Gordon Cameron of GC Shellfish was experiencing “his worst nightmare” under Brexit.
He told the Commons: “After loading a lorry of fresh local seafood on Monday, as he’s done for 35 years, his driver faced bureaucracy and delays."
“Brexit red tape now means that £40,000 of his fresh, high quality produce is lost, unable to be sold. That £40,000 produce is income for over 100 local families in many remote and fragile communities.
“Can the Prime Minister tell my constituent where is the sea of opportunity that he and his Scottish Tories promised?”
Boris Johnson avoided a direct answer but said the UK government was putting £100 million into supporting the fishing industry in Scotland and across the whole of the UK.
The PM then took a swipe at the SNP, labelling it the “nationalist” party again he added: “It is the policy of the Scottish nationalist party not just to break up the United Kingdom under their hare-brained scheme, but also to take Scotland back into the EU and hand back control of Scottish fisheries to Brussels, thereby throwing away all those opportunities.”
Blackford called for an increase in the financial support offered to businesses following the UK’s exit from the EU.
He told MPs: “The European Union have put in place a £5 billion fund to support businesses with the cost of Brexit and last night it was revealed that Ireland is receiving £1 billion of it.
“Can the Prime Minister tell Scottish business when they will be getting the same level of support and where’s the compensation for my constituent that’s losing £40,000 today?”
Johnson responded: “He continually advocates the break-up of the union with the United Kingdom and he continually advocates going back into the European Union, even though that would be immensely destructive to the Scottish economy, to jobs, to livelihoods, to pensions, to the currency.
“As far as I understand it, they’re already spending money in Scotland on IndyRef2, what they call IndyRef2, when they should be getting on with fighting the pandemic, that I think is what the people of Scotland want to see.”
Scottish seafood exporters have complained about a “mountain of paperwork” now needed to send shellfish to continental markets and have called for an urgent review.
Concerns have been raised the new checks means that every box of fresh seafood and salmon has to be offloaded from lorries and inspected by health officers before they leave Scotland.
Exporters claim the long delays mean that hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of fish are being destroyed and ending up in landfill.
GC Shellfish Ltd, the company highlighted by Blackford, was fined in £24,000 in 2019 in Fort William Sheriff Court for failing to properly administer the triplicate paperwork for cockles and mussels sales.
