Britain has told France “two can play at that game” in a warning the UK could retaliate in a post-Brexit row over fishing rights.
Macduff Shellfish – a north-east firm – saw one of its vessels detained in a French port in an escalation of a diplomatic row triggered by France claiming there is a lack of licences for boats to fish in UK waters.
French ministers warned they will block British boats from some ports.
They plan to tighten checks on vessels travelling between France and the UK if the issue is not resolved by Tuesday next week – as well as threatening the electric supply to the Channel Islands.
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss will challenge the French ambassador to the UK Catherine Colonna on France’s plans late on Friday afternoon.
‘Two can play at that game’
In another escalation, UK Environment Secretary George Eustice said “two can play at that game” in response to questions about how the UK might respond.
He insisted any British action would be “proportionate”, adding: “It’s always open to us to increase the enforcement we do on French vessels, to board more of them if that’s what they’re doing to our vessels – there are other administrative things we can require of vessels.”
The north-east firm’s scallop trawler Cornelis was caught up in the diplomatic storm and ordered to divert to the port of Le Havre on Wednesday after the French authorities said it was fishing in French waters without a licence.
Mr Eustice said the vessel was “on the list originally and had a licence” but it was understood there may have been “some changes to the engine on the vessel and that meant the licence had to be renewed”.
He added the UK Government was “trying to get to the bottom of it” but that it was a “minor administrative thing” and that the move was made in the context of France saying on Wednesday that “it was going to politicise this entire process”.
‘Entirely disproportionate’
The environment secretary told BBC Good Morning Scotland that the threats made by France were “entirely disproportionate and not what you’d expect from an ally”.
Macduff Shellfish has insisted it was operating in accordance with the Brexit fisheries agreement – saying the firm had been caught in the crossfire in an escalating trade war between the two nations.
Andrew Brown, director of sustainability and public affairs at Macduff, said: “It appears our vessel has been caught up in the ongoing dispute between the UK and France on the implementation of the Brexit fishing agreement.”
Mr Eustice faced tough questions on whether his government had been honest with fishing communities across the UK on the impact of Brexit.
The environment secretary said: “What we promised we would do is get them a fairer share of quotas, which we did get, and we said that we would have different access arrangements for EU vessels, that we would still grant quite a lot of access to EU vessels but not quite as much as before.
“And that is what we’re doing and that’s why we’re seeing these sorts of tensions.”