The Fishing for Leave (FFL) campaign is highlighting four words in the recently released Conservative manifesto that they believe indicates the UK’s lack of ambition to take control of UK waters following Britain’s exit from the European Union.
The heat under the collar is being generated by the wording ‘historically exercised sovereign control’ which FFL takes to indicate only waters as far as the 12-mile limit.
The 200-mile/mid-line demarcation lines came into being following Britain’s EU membership. Prior to that, the UK had a 12-mile limit, which had been reduced to only six miles under the 1964 London Fisheries Convention. Implementing a 200-mile limit was an EU requirement, upon which those waters became EU waters.
According to FFL, the manifesto statement that the UK “will be fully responsible for the access and management of the waters where we have historically exercised sovereign control” should be ringing the fishing industry’s alarm bells
According to Fishing for Leave, the choice of wording is deliberate, indicating the government’s intention to not take back full control of all UK waters, and warns that the UK government could be about to fail what it calls an acid test on reclaiming control of UK waters.
