SNP MP Seamus Logan has said that the Labour Party’s sums and excuses on their 83% cut to Scotland’s share of a Westminster fishing fund ‘don’t add up’, following an urgent question secured by him this morning.
Mr Logan has now said that ‘Keir Starmer is clearly taking the Boris Johnson approach on how to brazenly betray Scotland’s fishing industry’.
Labour’s fishing and coastal growth fund, designed to replace EU funding for fishing, will designate funds to the devolved nations on a population basis via the Barnett formula.
This means Scotland will receive just 7.78% of the total £360m fund, despite calls for 46% of funding to be devolved, equivalent to that which Scotland would have received through EU funding. Scotland will receive just £28 million from the fund – an 83% decrease on the proportional £166 million called for by the Scottish Government and other stakeholders.
England’s proportionally smaller fishing industry is now set to receive a significant boost at Scotland’s expense – receiving more than £300 million of the total funding.
Commenting, Seamus Logan MP, commented:
“Today’s urgent question clearly showed that not only do the Labour Party’s sums not add up, their excuses don’t add up either. They have cut Scotland’s fair share of this fishing fund by 83% and they now have the brass neck to tell Scotland’s coastal communities that they should be somehow grateful.
“Keir Starmer is clearly taking the Boris Johnson approach on how to brazenly betray Scotland’s fishing industry.
“Scotland has a cast iron case for a fair share of fisheries funding – by not funding Scotland fairly, the UK Labour government is choosing to funnel massive financial support to England’s fisheries at the expense of Scotland’s.
“When we were still part of the EU, we received 46% of funds based on our share of the UK fishing sector. We were led to believe that Labour’s Fishing and Coastal Growth Fund would replicate this allocation – but Labour’s habit of breaking promises strikes again.
“This is another example of a broken Westminster system that doesn’t work for Scotland – coastal communities and rural Scotland marginalised by a UK Government that is making decisions from afar, with little or no knowledge of the communities they are harming.
“After disastrous trade deals, hauling Scotland out of the single market, and now giving England’s fisheries an advantage on Scottish ones, successive UK Governments of all colours have shown they simply do not understand nor care about Scotland’s fishing industry.
“The only way we can guarantee Scotland’s fishing industry will always get the deal it deserves is with the fresh start of independence.”
