Sir Keir Starmer is close to striking a major deal with the EU that would let British arms companies sell billions of pounds of weapons to European allies, it has emerged.Under the agreement, UK companies would be able to bid for business under the bloc’s new €150 billion (£130 billion) defence fund.
But the deal comes after the UK reportedly made major concessions to Brussels on EU access to Britain’s fishing waters, in what critics will likely see as a betrayal of Brexit.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/starmer-eu-brexit-reset-defence-fishing-b2737088.html
Note the disinterested ‘critics will likely see’ from ‘liberal’, metropolitan media outlet.
How much does this matter to Scotland?
Above, the big picture of the ‘UK’ fishing industry, disproportionally Scottish.
Above again, the widespread reliance on the industry across Scotland – source misplaced, sorry.
Professor John Robertson OBA
4 years ago, stewartb wrote for us on an earlier phase of damage to Scottish interests after Brexit:
When I read nowadays about the UK’s marine wild capture fishing industry and ‘quota’ I am reminded of an article written in 2018 by the Labour Party’s John Prescott. He wrote for the Mirror newspaper under the headline: “Greed sank the UK’s fishing industry, not the EU”.
Source: https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/john-prescott-greed-sank-uks-12245527
He wrote: “… the (UK) Government actually decides how its EU fishing quota is distributed. If it really cared about the fishing industry, it would ensure these coastal communities with smaller vessels were allowed to fish more. Instead, we have larger foreign vessels being registered in the UK but landing their fish overseas. Brexit won’t change that. The Government can but it has done nothing.”
An article in The Independent as far back as 1996 exposed how the UK government had permitted the sale of quota to non-UK business interests. It noted this going back to the 80’s:
“… British trawler owners sold their boats to the Spanish and Dutch. Or in some cases they sold them to British brokers, who sold them to the Spanish and Dutch. Why? Because they were offering the best price.”
“Why were the foreign skippers so keen to buy British boats? Because under British, not EU, regulations, if you bought the boat, you also got the licence to fish and a guaranteed share of the national (i.e. the UK’s) quota.”
Source: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/britains-fishy-role-in-the-quota-hopping-scandal-1315516.html
So post-Brexit when the ‘patriotic’ British fishing businesses succeed in obtaining additional quota under the new UK regime will they once again be permitted to sell them on to the highest bidder from wherever?
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
I saw this news on here in a previous post from a TUS commentator rtpscott.
Where he/she stated:
“Starmer close to EU arms deal — at the expense of fishermen
British firms will be able to bid for the new €150 billion EU defence fund after the UK makes concessions on fishing quotas”
I immediately thought OMG first they, Fishermen, were screwed by the Tories now it’s the turn of Labour to also ‘screw them over’ of course the reality is that it is BREXIT that is the real problem here.
Mind you some Fisherman voted for Brexit and also voted Tory, I guess they thought it would be great, well they obviously guessed (and voted) wrong did they not.
Also how many Fisherman then voted Labour in the 2024 GE assuming , hoping or guessing that they, Labour, would somehow be different, only for them, as Fishermen, to now see that once again they made the wrong assumption, also their previous hopes were obviously false hopes and that ultimately they made the wrong guess (again), in fact their optimism in Labour has now proven to have been so very misplaced as they, Labour, do not deserve any loyalty or votes that they got. (from anyone).
The Tories did not have a clue what to do with Brexit and now neither does Labour know how to get Brexit done successfully or for the benefit of their whole UK.
In fact they , Labour, are also unable to ‘Make BREXIT work’ so then , as a result, we have various Brexit victims suffering as a result of UK Brexit. (via Tory and Labour UK governments).
The client media of Labour will promote this as a win for Labour and that somehow Labour are indeed ‘Making Brexit work’ but only for some of the “Few” , where as for some of the others, who are the “Many”, that includes Fishermen, well they will just have to suck it up.
As to your Q whether “Will Scottish Labour MPs vote against Starmer’s surrender of fishing rights for new EU arms deal”?
I think we all know the answer to that , though some of them may ‘do a Leishman’ if they represent fishing communities and so act like a rebel, but if they truly want to rebel, that is to ‘put your money where their mouth is’, as in actually start really rebelling against what is yet another Labour betrayal, then the best course of action would be to LEAVE THE LABOUR PARTY.
As if these are their Labour policies, actions and decisions then instead of , like Brian Leishman, carping from the sidelines, just get the H out of that party.
Vote SNP in 2026 as a way to show Labour that their sh*t is no different to the Tories sh*t , and neither is acceptable as sh*t that Scotland should have to constantly endure , and all because we , Scotland, are most unfortunate to still be a part of their awful UK.
Liz S
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Frankly I’m shocked at this. I sincerely hope Starmer is not going to give in to the Danes regarding the sand-eel fishery. It would be a disaster and should never have been allowed in the first place.
Apart from the environmental impact on birds and sea life. The catch is pressed for oil, which is then burnt in power stations and the remaining fishmeal is fed to pigs allowing the Danes to undercut our pig farmers. I am also told that they don’t just fish the sand-eels. They grab anything that swims. Nobody checks as the fish are poured into a large hold and can’t easily be inspected.
It’s mind bogglingly bad.
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Oh god that sounds dreadful. I’m a hippy vegan but I can sort of understand why folks want to eat fish, sort of…but the by-catch is just totally, utterly unacceptable. Sounds disastrous for all sealife. 😦
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I should also have said.
This also makes Europe look petty and greedy. To put it into context.
Europe: “Help help, the Russians are coming. The Enemy is at the gates”.
UK: “Ok let’s sign a defence treaty”
Europe: “Ok, but give us your fishing grounds first”
I’m normally pro European, but this is awful.
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‘This also makes Europe look petty and greedy. To put it into context.’ – perhaps a little more context might be of interest/useful.
From The Telegraph (March 18, 2025) ‘Starmer wants Britain treated like EU member in €800bn defence plan – PM pushes for UK defence companies to be classified as European for ‘ReArm’ project, but faces opposition from Emmanuel Macron’.
The online comment and analysis organisation Brussels Signal (March 21, 2025) reported: ‘Commission excludes UK arms manufacturers from EU defence fund but not Ukraine.’
‘The European Commission has shut out defence companies from the UK and other third countries from the European Union’s common defence fund.
‘In a proposal for a council regulation on the Security Action For Europe (SAFE) instrument, dated March 19, commission officials set strict eligibility criteria for arms procurements by member states financed through the €150 billion SAFE fund.
‘Contractors involved in common procurement must be established and managed inside an EU, European Economic Area (EEA) or European Free Trade Association (EFTA) State – or Ukraine.
‘Moreover, at least 65 per cent of the value of the final product must come from said group of countries. The rules also extended to subcontractors that contributed more than 15 per cent of the value of the end product.’
However it notes ‘The EU may conclude security agreements with “like-minded” countries that included their defence manufacturers in the list of eligible suppliers. Reportedly, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer may sign such an agreement in May.
‘Any such partnership would come at a cost. The commission proposal mandated that the security agreements with third countries must “ensure a fair balance of contributions” – a demand reiterated by the German ambassador to the UK, Miguel Berger. According to The Times, he told UK radio that Britain had to pay its “fair share” into the EU defence fund. “Obviously EU taxpayers’ money cannot go simply into British companies,” Berger said.’
I heard some weeks ago a spokesperson for a UK defence contractors trade body berating the EU for its stance on procurement. For a body from a country that opted to leave the EU, which has no intention of being part of the EU single market or customs union, and which also has its own restrictions on international companies bidding for UK defence contracts (warships), pleading for the UK and its defence industry to be treated just as if we were still in the EU seemed a ‘bit rich’!
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Not a shadow of a doubt in my mind. They will vote the way they are told to vote.
Surely Scots stupid enough to vote for them in the first place will have their eyes wide open over this latest disgraceful move and call time on them.
I’m sitting here writing this and my head is shaking in disbelief at how low Starmer is prepared to go.
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Yep, Labour jobsworths operating at the Scottish parliament work only for their masters in London, anyone who beleives otherwsie is deluded.
When you have polticians, who are registered and head quartered in the country next door, an arm of the party at Westminster, sitting in your parliament, it’s more of a lightweight democracy, and in this case, under heavy weight rule by the next door country, who are intent on, and intending to take down the democratically elected government in Scotland.
This is all part of their asset stripping of Scotland, they are not daft they have form in that regard.
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What other country would put up with three parties that worked against their own government?
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The Scottish Fishing Industry was surrendered to the EU before we joined.
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That would have been at the behest of the English government back then though I presume.
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I may be wrong ArtyHetty but was it not Tory UK government who struck what some UK fishermen said was a terrible deal for them via the Common Fisheries Policy Agreement when the UK was initially in the Common Market ?
Latter day so called ‘Scottish’ Tories weaponised this above CFP agreement as a stick with which to beat the SNP with , where they used it in their argument to promote Brexit, as they promised Scottish Fishermen a far better deal post Brexit and said that the SNP only wanted to stay in the EU to keep the terrible Common Fisheries Policy Agreement.
That argument by Tories in Scotland failed, as Scottish Fishermen did not get a better deal, as the UK Tories screwed all of the UK (and Scottish) Fishermen over, in them, the UK Tories, not negotiating a better deal for the UK Fishermen with the EU on fishing rights, BTW strangely none of the Scottish Tories noted that the Common Fisheries Policy Agreement was agreed to by a past Tory PM.
The ‘Take back control of (so called) British waters” ended up with what some said was the UK Tories “kicking the can down the road” to June 2026 where the issue , of UK Fishing rights aka ‘taking back control of the UK waters’ has not been resolved but merely postponed, as EU boats from 2021 would continue to fish in ‘UK’ waters for some years to come via the new Brexit rules on Fishing rights as agreed with the EU , and that came into force in January 2021.
The Tory UK government conceded ground to the EU and many of the UK fishermen said then that all they got with Brexit was far more red tape via excessive paperwork.
Tories gonna Tory (Baroness Davidson, who back then was just plain old Ruth Davidson the pretend leader of the Tories in Scotland, was one punting the better Brexit deal for Scottish Fishermen together with the former Chief Exec of Scottish Fishermen’s Federation (and Tory ) Bertie Armstrong as they were promoting the campaign of Scottish Tories assurances that the UK would take back control of Fishing stocks with Brexit).
Ruth was allegedly a Remainer in the 2016 EU Ref campaign but then she backed down and became a born again Brexiteer, post the EU referendum, as that was what her UK party dictated that she had to do, so she followed (UK Tory) orders and did her best to try to sell Brexit to Scotland (and also to the Scottish Fishermen in 2018).
Of course Davidson is a media construct Heroine , so no one blames her, well perhaps Scottish Fishermen do as she was the one who helped con them.
Mind you some Fishermen said they would still vote for Brexit again and keep voting Tory, some others think Farage will put their interests first, I think that too will be another steep (and harsh) learning curve for these Fishermen as Farage will, like the Tories, do nowt but line his own pockets and also his backers pockets if he ever gets anywhere near power in the UK.
Look up UK parliament Nigel Farage , then look under Registered Interests that he, Farage, has acknowledged to the Parliament with him now an MP.
I looked and I was really shocked , the earnings list for him was very very long and it seemed never ending as a list with very large amounts noted as paid to him for very little hours worked at these external jobs !!!
Thousands and thousands of pounds Farage is earning on top of his MP salary, so for the “Few” it seems politics does pay ( I bet some of the “Many” people who support his party and want to vote for his party might be shocked when they see his excessive earnings, and then may wonder where the H does he get the time to be an MP for Clacton) ?
Vote SNP in 2026 or I may go mad, if I have not already done so.
Liz S
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I am sure Sarwar is already preparing his strong and robust challenge to any such proposal that would be detrimental to Scottish fishermen.
There again, it will be probably be promoted as more of a Labour “new direction” initiative in this “changing world”, rather than another total sell out of the Scots.
So that’s all ok then. 😦
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Not sure that the Scottish wild capture fisheries industry – or at least the skippers and their representative bodies – merit too much sympathy given their political choices!
From the Scottish Fishermans’ Federation (February 12, 2025) ‘Skippers’ message to PM: do not gamble away our futures for EU deal’. (https://www.sff.co.uk/news/skippers-message-to-pm-do-not-gamble-away-our-futures-for-eu-deal )
‘The Prime Minister must avoid gambling with the future of Scottish fishing businesses by using the industry as a bargaining chip in negotiations to improve relations with the EU.
‘That’s the stark message delivered to Sir Keir Starmer today in a letter from the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation prior to talks on future trading arrangements between UK and European negotiators.’
So the supposed threat from the UK government is not just linked to a deal over access to defence contracts?
And the SFF goes on: ‘“The Scottish fishing industry has twice in the past been regarded as expendable by British Prime Ministers when it comes to Europe,” warned SFF chief executive Elspeth Macdonald.
“We must not have a repeat of 1973 when the condition of entry to the EEC was that our richly endowed fishing waters be pooled with other members, or of 2020 when the Brexit agreement, while restoring the UK to the status of sovereign coastal state, granted continued access to our waters to EU vessels to catch far more fish in our waters than they catch in their own.”
‘… the 2020 Brexit deal left the UK in a situation that no other independent coastal state would countenance – giving unfettered access to another’s fishing fleet.’
And the SFF’s CEO goes on: “It clearly infuriates the EU that the UK, an independent coastal state, can now manage its fisheries as it sees fit.‘ But how does this remark fit with her previous remarks about the UK “giving unfettered access to another’s fishing fleet.”?
Then there is the recent history of decision making by the SFF and its skippers. From The Telegraph (August 21, 2014) ‘Scottish fishermen deliver EU warning on independence – The Scottish Fishermen’s Federation argue that the largest EU countries have the most influence and raise concerns about trawlers’ quota after separation.
‘Scotland’s fishing leaders have warned that independence could mean them getting a worse deal from Europe because the largest EU countries “win on the big issues…’
And this academic paper: McAngus C (April 2018) A survey of Scottish fishermen ahead of Brexit: political, social and constitutional attitudes. Maritime Studies 17(5) (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/325188654_A_survey_of_Scottish_fishermen_ahead_of_Brexit_political_social_and_constitutional_attitudes )
‘The paper focuses on how fishermen in Scotland vote at both UK and Scottish elections, how they voted in the Scottish independence and EU referendums, their political and social attitudes and their demographic breakdown’
‘The fact that fishermen in Scotland tend to vote Conservative confirmed some of the tentative evidence that this was the case. Of course, this can only be said for skippers, and it remains unknown as to how those who work on vessels in other capacities vote.’
‘…. fishermen in Scotland were strongly behind remaining in the UK at the 2014 Scottish independence referendum’.
‘… fishermen are very Eurosceptic. An over-whelming majority stated that they intended to vote to leave the EU. Further examination found that their reasoning was very much instrumental in that they believe that leaving the EU and the CFP will benefit their industry.’
Based on the above, what’s the industry’s, and the SFF’s strike rate in making good judgement calls?
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Fishermen over fished the seas. They were given increased quotas for using bigger nets. Norway does that.
The UK has not brexited. They are still paying EU contibutions. The UK paid €12Billion contribution. Most of it came back. In CAP payments, loans and investment and shared Defence costs. The nearest, biggest markets. Brexit has lost Scotland £Billions. Scotland did not vote for it.
Get Trident out of Scotland. A danger to Scotland, Scotland paying too much for Defence (attack) and redundant weaponry. 180,000 military personnel. 10,000 based in Scotland but Scotland has to pay for it.
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Can you please email your bank details so I can make a donation by direct banking?
Yahoo Mail: Search, organise, conquer
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Hi
Many thanks
08-93-00
14217339
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EU wins on big issues? Quotas were introduced to conserve fish stock. Too many dead fish were being throw back.
EU considers health and other topics. MUP was supported by the EU. Make a good case. The EU listens.
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