Boris Johnson will have to step in to fisheries negotiations with the EU if Britain is to avoid Brexit talks collapsing by June.
A UK government source close to the talks warned the UK will leave with no deal unless the EU change their stance on access to UK fishing waters.
The source said the two sides were currently “talking past each other” on key areas and that there was “no meeting of minds” on fisheries after talks moved to video conferencing because of the coronavirus epidemic.
The EU negotiators want continued access to European fishing boats to UK waters
But the Government insists that by the time annual fishing negotiations take place this December Britain ought to be treated as an independent state.
In a briefing to journalists, the source spelled out the tough line the UK negotiators are taking.
He said: “At the end of the year we become a country with control over our coastal waters. We will base access on science and it will be up to us to determine access by annual negotiations, that is a kind of fundamental. If the EU wants to talk to us about how that will work on that basis, then fine.”
The source said the country is looking for the kind of fishing deal the EU has with Norway, which negotiates reciprocal access with the EU each year.
He said: “There are there are some fundamentals that we’re not going to change and we are not going to move on, not because they’re negotiating positions, because they’re sort of thing an independent state does, and an independent state controls its coastal waters.”
The official said that a later stage political involvement by the Prime Minister and EU leaders would be needed to overcome the deadlock if no negotiated solution can be found
The source said: “If they continue to insist on their position on a so-called level playing field and on continuing the Common Fisheries Policy, for example, we are never going to accept that. Draw your own conclusion from that but I hope they will move on.”
