Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 30 December 2020
None of those free trade agreements will make up for the loss of our membership of the world’s biggest single market, which we will get ripped out of—against our will—in two days’ time. Dean Lockhart has helpfully demonstrated that the benefits we will get in return for all this harm being imposed on us are pretty much non-existent.
Even fishing—the one sector that expected benefits from Brexit—has been comprehensively let down. The Tory fishing promises were never deliverable—as many of us pointed out—but they were made, and the industry had a right to rely on them. Every single one of them has been broken. Douglas Ross, Alister Jack and every Scottish Tory MP said, in writing, that the UK and Scotland must have
“complete control and full sovereignty over British waters”.
They said that “tying” fisheries access “to a trade deal” was a red line that must not be crossed. If it was, they said, the UK would be leaving the common fisheries policy “in name only”, which would be—in their words, not mine—a “betrayal” of Scotland.
That betrayal is there for all to see in this deal. There is a long-term arrangement guaranteeing EU boats access to UK waters; access and quota shares are included in the future economic partnership; and access to waters is not just tied to the overall trade deal but hardwired into it. Every Tory promise to Scotland’s fishermen has been broken, and every Tory red line has been crossed. However, it is even worse than that—
Liam Kerr (North East Scotland) (Con) rose—