Remainer Femi shut down by Carole Malone in heated Brexit fishing row: ‘Can’t accept it!’

The pair clashed over the latest UK proposal to allow EU fishermen to continue to fish in UK waters for the next three years after the Brexit transition period, after which Britain will dictate quotas to be allocated to different EU member states entering British waters. Remainer Femi Oluwole argued the proposal was far from the “British waters for British people” promised by Brexiteers ahead of the Brexit referendum. 

But Brexiteer Carole Malone replied: “You just can’t accept it Femi, can you?

“It’s incredible how you try your way around this.

“It is our waters! We get to dictate how much Europe can take out.”

As he insisted the original idea was that Europeans would no longer be able to fish at all in British waters, Ms Malone blasted: “No, it wasn’t.

“That was never the idea. We were limited on how much we could take out of our own waters.

“That will no longer apply. We will be able to take what we want. They have taken unlimited fish!”

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The row comes as the European Union and Britain have not yet found a deal on sharing access to fishing waters and markets to sell their catch after Britain ‘s transition period in the EU ends this year, the European Commission said on Tuesday.

Fisheries, along with state aid rules for British companies and ways to solve future disputes between the 27-nation bloc and the Britain are the main stumbling blocs for a trade deal.

“We have not yet found a solution on fisheries,” a Commission spokesman told a regular news briefing.

“We are not there yet, a lot more work remains to be done,” he said talks under way in Brussels this week were very intensive and on all topics.

Meanwhile, the European Commission will consider escalating its legal dispute with Britain over the violation of the Brexit withdrawal treaty because Britain did not answer the EU’s initial actions within the allotted one-month deadline, the EU executive said.

The EU sent a formal letter of notice to London at the start of October over its internal market bill that breaches agreements in the treaty ending Britain’s membership of the European Union.

A European Commission spokesman said on Tuesday that Britain had failed to reply and that the Commission would therefore now consider the next step in the legal dispute which is a reasoned opinion.

Peers in the House of Lords resumed detailed line-by-line scrutiny of controversial Brexit legislation which would allow ministers to breach international law on Monday.

As the third day of committee stage debate on the Internal Market Bill got underway in the Lords, concerns were again raised about the role of the devolved nations.

Tory former lord chancellor Lord Mackay of Clashfern said that while the UK Parliament had the legislative competence to regulate the internal market, the devolved administrations also had a “fundamental interest” in it.

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“It is wise to give them a voice in the way that it is exercised,” Lord Mackay said, urging consultations with the devolved administrations through the joint ministerial committee.

Liberal Democrat Baroness Humphreys, a former member of the Welsh Assembly, welcomed Lord Mackay’s “entirely sensible” call to involve the devolved administrations in agreeing to regulations under the Bill.

For the Opposition, Lord Falconer of Thoroton said the move revealed “yet another problem” with the Bill.

The legislation, which has already cleared the Commons, sets out the way that trade within the UK will work once it is outside the EU’s single market and customs union.

Peers have already indicated they will seek to strip out the most contentious parts of the Bill, which give ministers the power to breach the Brexit divorce deal brokered with Brussels last year.

Votes on those key clauses are expected next Monday, November 9 and if the Government is defeated this is likely to set the scene for a showdown between the unelected chamber and the Commons.