Meeting of the Parliament 30 April 2025
I do not have time to take another intervention.
The Scottish Conservative motion seeks to suggest that we need no change to the current system that its Government presided over. What is much more concerning is that it seeks to conflate our national security and the security of the European continent with discussions on our working relationship with the European Union.
Regardless of what happens with the talks in May, the United Kingdom needs to work with the whole of Europe to protect our national interests in the light of Russian aggression. That is essential for our shared security. Not working together would be in no one’s interests, and it is simply wrong to suggest otherwise. Furthermore, it is crass, in the face of an aggressor, to conflate our national security with our economic wellbeing. The UK Government has made it clear that that will not happen.
There are messages on the fisheries negotiations that we, as a Parliament, must clearly send to the United Kingdom Government. We all understand the importance of fisheries to Scotland, and we need to encourage new entrants into the industry. Setting up fishing enterprises requires investment, so we need to create entry-level opportunities. We also all know that more of the earnings of smaller boats are retained in their communities, and that is an excellent way to encourage new entrants. New entrants also need to be able to access quota. Therefore, new quota must be leased in the public interest, not sold to the highest bidder. We should build on the Shetland model, in which quota is owned by a community and then leased to those who live in the local community and land their catches in Shetland. Orkney Council and Comhairle nan Eilean Siar also do that with prawn quota.
That should be how we manage our quota going forward. It gives councils the ability to manage fisheries in a way that benefits local economies. That is community wealth building in action: retaining the economic wealth of our fishing industries in our communities to ensure that we have the onshore benefits as well as the offshore benefits of fishing. All those things need to be discussed and put in place.
Let us be clear that the Tories pushed for Brexit to take back control of fishing. Sadly, they had already allowed the sale of United Kingdom quota to foreign boats—and quota was sold to the highest bidder. We will take no lessons from the party that created discord with our nearest neighbours in Europe to cover its own incompetence.