‘We were promised we'd get our fishing grounds back – Starmer's Brexit deal is giving everything away'

Yahoo

20-05-2025

It's quiet on the North Quay in Grimsby. There aren't many fishermen left, and those who remain don't have much hope for the future.
'We've all got grey hair down here, and we've only got a few more years [at it],' says Darren Kenyon, who's been fishing since he was 13. Now he's 58 and no longer believes that anyone will listen when he talks about the plight of those in the local industry, which once formed the backbone of the town.
Grimsby used to be the world's premier fishing port, famous for its cod and haddock, but by 2018 there were just 20 trawlers left. Now there are only a handful.
Some date the start of the industry's demise to the cod wars of the 1970s, while others blame the European Union (EU) common fisheries policy, which introduced strict catch quotas to preserve stock.
Either way, Euroscepticism was common among fishermen and Brexit enjoyed a high level of support in the industry. In Grimsby, some 70 per cent of voters backed it in the 2016 referendum.
Taking back control of our waters and liberation from EU regulations were meant to be among its chief selling points. But since Britain left the bloc, many fishermen have felt betrayed. New paperwork has created obstacles to selling to EU countries, which make up Britain's biggest export market.
Credit: Reuters
And now comes what they see as another blow, in the form of Sir Keir Starmer's new Brexit 'reset' deal. Under the terms agreed by the Prime Minister, EU fishing boats will continue to have access to UK waters until 2038. This access had been due to expire in June next year.
The quid pro quo for the extension, says the Government, is that importing and exporting food and drink will be made easier as paperwork and checks will be reduced. Some checks on animal and plant products will be entirely scrapped.
None of which seems to impress the fishermen in Grimsby, who don't sell to the continent anyway.
'It's just the same old story,' says Kenyon, who lands crabs, lobsters and whelks from his four boats and also owns a fish processing factory on the quayside. 'It's another good hiding for us, I'm afraid. The job's knackered now.'
The promise of Brexit, as he sees it, has been broken. 'We were promised we were going to get our fishing grounds back,' he says. 'We've ended up with hardly anything. This deal is giving everything away.'
The situation in Grimsby reflects the wider mood in fishing communities across the UK, as they try to come to terms with the catastrophic consequences of Starmer's new deal.
Kenyon is standing on the dock, surrounded by the paraphernalia of his trade: the lobster pots and crab pots, coils of rope and rolls of netting. But he's one of the few still at it. Jim Walker, who's been fishing for 40 years, is another, but he works from a little estuary 20 miles down the coast 'because we can't afford to come in this dock'.
He too is scathing about Starmer's deal, which was described by the Conservatives and Reform as a 'surrender' to the EU.
'They've just given the French, the Dutch, the Belgians free reign,' he says.
Under the current rules, EU fishing boats are meant to remain outside a six-mile zone off Britain's coast. But they don't, claims Walker, who lands shellfish and sells them to Kenyon.
Shellfish from Kenyon's 17-year-old factory on the Quayside is sold all over Britain. He took over the business from his father and had wanted to pass it on to his children but is no longer sure that will happen.
'The last 15 years [have seen a] big crunch, we've got a lack of crews – a lot have left to work for the wind farms because it's good money – and we're all of a certain age,' he says. 'I think the job is done and the industry is going to die pretty quick.'
Red tape, he says, has stunted his ability to do his job. Besides which he feels certain that he and the other British fishermen are more heavily policed than their foreign counterparts fishing nearby.
Under the new deal – also branded 'disastrous' by the Scottish Fishermen's Federation – it seems likely such resentments will continue to simmer.
Would things have improved under the plan to deny EU vessels access after June 2026?
'I think it would have made a difference for the whole of England,' says Kenyon. In 10 to 20 years' time there could have been 'a sea full of fish, we don't let anybody in, we fish it for ourselves.''
But in Grimsby, he admits, 'we haven't got the vessels because we haven't had the help.'
Most of those that sit on the shimmering water in the dock today are not fishing trawlers but boats working in the renewable energy industry. Offshore wind was meant to breathe life back into Grimsby (its home to one of the world's largest offshore wind farms) but there's little evidence of that in the streets of run-down or boarded up shop buildings.
There's a sense of sadness about this among the fishermen, who are keenly aware of what has been lost here.
'We're an island,' says Kenyon. 'We should be farming ourselves and fishing ourselves.'
But as he sees it, the new deal is another nail in the coffin of an already ailing industry.
Rob Evans, who runs Taymore Ltd, a Grimsby-based shellfish company with one trawler, brands the agreement 'terrible'. He says: 'First [Starmer's] done the farmers, now he's done fishing. My biggest concern is it's another food source being smashed.'
He's perplexed by Starmer agreeing to an extension of as long as 12 years 'because that's three future governments possibly.'
If EU access to British waters had ended next year as originally planned, there would have been more fish available, which would have helped the local industry, he believes. As it is, there are European vessels that steam up from France 'and take tonnes and tonnes of whiting'.
He adds: 'I can't see any fishermen in the country thinking it's a great idea to have more boats turning up and taking fish that, if left alone, will breed.'
Fishing is a small but politically sensitive part of the British economy, estimated to make up just 0.03 per cent of GDP. In Grimsby, though, it still forms an important part of the local identity. Seafood processing provides 6,000 jobs in the town, even if the numbers of men going out to sea has dwindled to near zero.
The Government has announced a £360 million investment fund in coastal communities and the fishing industry. But it isn't enough to reassure the fishermen in Grimsby, who feel they have been sold out by successive governments.
'The Government doesn't care about the fishing industry,' says Walker.
Behind him, some of the buildings are no longer in use, or have been demolished.
'It was unreal,' sighs Kenyon. 'You could get anything here, you didn't have to go out of the dock. It was like its own little mini-town, I loved it. The dock was alive. There were thousands of people working night and day… Nobody seems to want it any more.'
That thriving place has gone now and no-one seems to believe there's much of a chance of it ever returning.
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