France backs down on immediate threats to ban British boats from French ports

Published

3 years ago

November 1, 2021

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France has backed down on immediate threats to ban British vessels from French ports as the two nations continue to feud over post-Brexit licences to fish in UK waters.

French President Emmanuel Macron had warned that Paris could block UK boats from landing their catches and impose physical checks on lorries travelling to and from the UK – which had led to fears of long queues on either side of the Channel resulting in delayed shipments ahead of Christmas.

But on Monday evening, Downing Street said it welcomed an announcement from Paris that it would “not go ahead with implementing their proposed measures as planned tomorrow”, adding that the UK is “ready” to continue talks.

The statement from a UK government spokesperson continued: “The UK has set out its position clearly on these measures in recent days.

“As we have said consistently, we are ready to continue intensive discussions on fisheries, including considering any new evidence to support the remaining license applications.

“We welcome France’s acknowledgement that in-depth discussions are needed to resolve the range of difficulties in the UK/EU relationship. Lord Frost has accepted Clement Beaune’s invitation and looks forward to the discussions in Paris on Thursday.”

Mr Macron allegedly told reporters at the COP26 climate conference earlier on Monday that “discussions have resumed” on the basis of a proposal he made to Boris Johnson.

He is reported to have said that the UK government agreed to come back to the French government on Tuesday “with other proposals”.

Officials from the two nations have been involved in talks convened by the European Commission in Brussels.

Meanwhile Mr Johnson and Mr Macron came face-to-face once more on Monday after both arriving in Glasgow.

Earlier on Monday, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss told Sky News she was setting a 48-hour deadline for the fishing dispute with France to be resolved.

After this point, the UK government would begin taking legal action, Ms Truss said, hitting out at the French for behaving “unfairly” and making “completely unreasonable” threats.

Shortly after her comments, Downing Street added that it had “robust” contingency plans in place if Mr Macron’s government carried out threats to disrupt trade from midnight.

Last week, French authorities detained a British scallop trawler in the port of Le Havre as fresh tensions over post-Brexit fishing rights broke out.

The UK has granted licences to 98% of EU vessels which have requested permission to operate in British waters.

But the dispute centres on access for small boats, under 12 metres, wishing to fish in the UK six to 12 nautical mile zone.

The government in Paris detained the British scallop trawler as it was angry that the UK originally granted only 12 licences out of 47 bids for smaller vessels.

A total of 18 licences have now been granted.

Paris had previously said if the rules did not chance by midnight on Tuesday, retaliatory measures would be launched.

Jersey‘s government, which is responsible for managing licences for French vessels to fish in the island’s waters, has since accused France of seeking to “bully” with the “completely unprecedented” threat to the island’s energy supply.

And the Crown Dependency called for an end to the “silliness” of “political rhetoric” and to “deal with the technical issues”.

Meanwhile, Labour’s shadow business secretary Ed Miliband also expressed his fears that French threats were being made “for domestic political reasons”.

“I don’t like the way French have behaved in this at all – I actually agree with Liz Truss on this,” he told Sky News at the COP26 summit.

Politics

Bitfinex database breach ‘seems fake,’ says CTO

Published

13 hours ago

May 5, 2024

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<div>Bitfinex database breach 'seems fake,' says CTO</div>

Bitfinex CTO Paolo Ardoino explained that if the hacking group was telling the truth, they would have asked for a ransom, but he “couldn’t find any request.”

Politics

Labour taking ‘Tory crown jewel’ feels like a momentum shift

Published

16 hours ago

May 5, 2024

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Labour taking 'Tory crown jewel' feels like a momentum shift

It was a wafer-thin victory, but a huge win.

The symbolism of Labour taking the West Midlands mayor, a jewel in the Tory crown, could be felt in the room as Labour activists gathered in Birmingham to celebrate the win with their new mayor Richard Parker and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer.

There are moments on election journeys when the momentum shifts – and this win felt like one of them.

“We humbly asked [the voters] to put their trust and confidence in a changed Labour Party and they did. And that is a significant piece of political history that we’ve made here today,” said Sir Keir at his victory rally.

“So the message out of these elections, the last now the last stop before we go into that general election, is that the country wants change.

“I hope the prime minister is listening and gives the opportunity to the country to vote as a whole in a general election as soon as possible.”

This win gave them the boost that was missing when they won the Blackpool South by-election on a massive 26-point swing, but then failed to pick up the hundreds of council seats they were chasing.

This win, on just 1,508 votes or 0.25 per cent of the vote, was a body blow for a Conservative party that believed they could just about cling on. Ben Houchen, the Tees Valley mayor, is now the last Tory standing.

For Labour, then a moment to bookmark.

Just as Boris Johnson’s Hartlepool by-election win in 2021 was a low point for Sir Keir – he told me this week that he considered resigning over the loss because he thought it showed he was the barrier to Labour’s recovery – this too will feel devastating not just for Andy Street but for the PM too.

Labour has beaten him in a street fight. He’s bloodied with Sir Keir now emboldened.

“This was the one result we really needed,” said one senior Labour figure. “It’s been our top focus for the past week and symbolically a very important win.”

And Labour needed the boost, because, as Professor Michael Thrasher pointed out in his Sky News’ national vote share projection calculated from the local election results, Sir Keir was not picking up the sort of vote share that Tony Blair was winning in the run-up to the 1997 Labour landslide.

His latest calculation of a 35% vote share for Labour and 26% for the Tories, put Sir Keir winning a general election but short of a majority.

What the West Midlands mayoral win did for Sir Keir was to give him a clear narrative that he is coming for the Tories and will do what he needs to take them down.

It raises inevitable questions about what is next for Rishi Sunak. The prime minister had nowhere to go today, not one win to celebrate. The worst performance in council elections in 40 years, was already pretty much as bad as it gets before the loss of Andy Street. The former Conservative mayor was magnanimous towards the prime minister, saying the loss was his alone.

But colleagues will not be so generous. One former cabinet minister said this loss was “devastating”. “We’re done and there’s no appetite to move against him,” said the senior MP. Many Tories tell me they are now resigned to defeat and believe Mr Sunak and his team needed to own it, rather than the rest of the party.

The coming days might be bumpy, the mood will be stony. But Tories tell me not much will actually change for them.

For Sir Keir, he now needs to sell not the changed Labour Party, but his vision for changing the country. The West Mids mayor’s win was dazzling, but it could have so easily gone the other way. And as Mr Sunak fights to survive, Labour still has to fight hard to win.