Local MP for Hastings and Rye, Sally-Ann Hart, has been working with ministers in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to ensure the new Fisheries Bill secures protections and support to local fishing communities.
Sally-Ann has been working on behalf of local fishermen to ensure that, as the UK leaves the European Union and takes back control of the UK’s territorial fishing waters, the 12 nautical miles off the coast of the UK is only used in the future by UK fishing crews and no foreign vessels will be granted licences to fish in these waters.
Last night in the final debate on the Fisheries Bill, Sally-Ann secured this vital reassurance for local fishermen, in a win for fishing communities all over the UK.
Responding to this Sally-Ann said, “I am delighted that after weeks of discussions with the department on this matter, the minister last night could confirm that the 12 mile nautical zone off the coast of the UK will be sovereign to our fishing fleets, and vessels from other countries will not be allowed to fish in these waters or be given licences in the future. These waters will be available to UK fishing vessels only. This is fantastic news for the fishing communities in Hastings and Rye.”
The Fisheries Bill is the first of its sort in the UK for over forty years and will bring to an end the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) of the European Union that the UK has been member of. The bill will support the UK fishing industry into the future providing it with a sustainable and financially viable outlook. Moreover, the bill brings in environmental protections and enhancements for coastal regions and marine environments.
The key to this bill is the sovereignty of the UK fishing waters, and in response to the reassurance secure by Sally-Ann, Paul Joy of the Hastings Fishing Fleet said “It’s good to see the government is not backing down and to see that the 12 mile limit is now sacrosanct for British fishermen only. The new limit will be extremely beneficial to the fishing industry, especially here in Hastings”
Speaking after the vote Sally-Ann continued, “I want to thank Paul Joy, Keith Chapman and many others in the fishing communities in Hastings and Rye, who have done so much to weather the storms of recent decades as the CFP has inflicted such hardship and frustration on their livelihoods and communities.
“I am delighted that this bill brings this to an end, and we have the security and reassurance from government that for our under-10 metre fishing fleets we have the control and sovereignty over our 12 mile fishing waters. This is a good day for UK fishing.”
Source: Sally-Ann Hart MP press release
Image Credits: Sussex Wildlife Trust .
Great propaganda piece, worthy of Pravda.
What this article does not say is that Sally-Ann Hart just last week voted against enshrining food safety and animal welfare standards in UK law after Brexit. She is in favour of allowing food to be imported that does not meet the UK’s current safety and animal welfare standards, which will open the country up to inhumane and unsafe imports, and undermine domestic production. A campaign by the National Farmers’ Union which gathered more than 1m signatures has been ignored.
As for fisheries, more than 97% of British marine protected areas (MPAs), created to safeguard ocean habitats, are being dredged and bottom trawled, including by vessels from the UK. Nearly a quarter of the UK’s territorial waters are covered by MPAs, set up to protect vital ecosystems and species, including harbour porpoises and dolphins. Attempts to enshrine in law a commitment to keep fishing quotas within the sustainable limits advised by scientists failed, and an amendment aimed at banning supertrawlers from marine protected areas was also defeated. Sally-Ann Hart is in favour of supertrawlers fishing in MPAs.
I was wondering how Ms Hart had voted on the food standards issue—straight party line, as usual, or acting acting for the benefit of the people she represents. No surprise, again.
Owners of local butchers and farm shops have promised us that they will only sell meat sourced locally, not importing anything of questionable standards. Very good news, but with governmental undermining of food standard and animal welfare principles, will it remain possible to keep doing so in the coming years?
A tad premature to suggest that our MP has saved the day for local fishermen.
She may have voted for the government, as she always does, but the sharing out of fishing waters is still being fought out in Brussels. Again as usual, the Clown’s Do or Die deadline has come and gone.
No one can tell a fish to live within any nation’s territorial waters. International cooperation, quotas etc are essential if stocks are to be preserved. We shall see if the fishers gain much in the end. Negotiations are continuing and don’t see this government sacrificing much larger sections of the economy in favour of fishing. Sorry, I’m cynical.
A backbench MP has little power to ‘secure’ anything. It is Government policy to ‘take back control’ of our waters anyway. This is a press release. Why isn’t there a reaction comment from the opposition in order to balance this?
It’s not the first time Rye News has basically just printed the MP’s press release verbatim. Bit disappointing, to be honest.
Absolutely Delbert Wilkins. Usual lackadaisical journalism. Copy and paste, copy and paste articles despite them being misleading at best and sometimes darn right lies! I know Rye News is just a hobby but come on, up your game please.
Dear Rye News,
Your readers need to know the facts:
1. Last week, Sally-Ann Hart voted to deny hungry children free school meals during the school holidays. (https://www.theyworkforyou.com/divisions/pw-2020-10-21-154-commons).
2. As reported in Rye News, 21% of children in Rye are living in poverty (April 2020, https://www.ryenews.org.uk/news/children-living-in-poverty).
“There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children”. Nelson Mandela, May 1995.
Since we now know that the Brexit financial settlement contains no such protection for local fishermen, might we expect a clarification from Ms Hart regarding the victory she congratulates herself on in this article? Or will she continue her Trumpian (Trumpesque?) claims to have won even though she didn’t? (And just in case anyone was wondering, Ms Hart voted in favour of the financial settlement).
It is worth stating that there are many lawyer MPs with integrity. Unfortunately, the voting record of ours rather suggests otherwise. My belief in Ms Hart’s ability to represent her constituents appropriately utterly vanished with her response to the breach of international law contained in the Internal Markets Bill in September 2020. It directly contradicted her statement then that she absolutely agreed upholding the rule of law is a fundamental principle and adhering to obligations under a treaty is part of the rule of law. Furthermore, it was in breach of her professional code: the solicitors Code of Conduct requires her to ‘Uphold the rule of law and the proper administration of justice, to act with integrity and not allow [her] independence to be compromised.’ I note that a number of her parliamentary colleagues who are lawyers refused to compromise their integrity.