Highlands and Islands MSP Jamie Halcro Johnston will highlight concerns raised with him by Scotland’s fishing sector as the Shadow Deputy Rural Affairs and Islands Spokesman closes his party’s debate in the Scottish Parliament this Wednesday on the challenges facing Scottish fishing.
The Scottish Conservatives have chosen to use their business time to bring a fishing to debate in Holyrood after the SNP Scottish Government failed to do so.
Mr Halcro Johnston said:
“Our fishing industry is a vital employer in our coastal and island communities, and supports so many local jobs and livelihoods – both directly and indirectly – across the Highlands and Islands region I represent.
“That is why the Scottish Conservatives are using our limited business time to hold a debate on the threats to the sector, and why it is so shameful that the SNP Government has failed to do so.
“Leaving the Common Fisheries Policy has been a positive move, but I also recognise industry concerns over the limitations of the deal agreed with the EU as we left.
“However, the threat the sector now faces from the Labour government’s potential deal with Brussels - which risks seeing access to Scottish waters used as a bargaining chip for access to EU defence procurement – is grave. As well as being extremely damaging, it would be a sell-out of local fishermen and our fishing communities.
“Our debate will be an opportunity for MSPs to highlight their opposition to Labour’s damaging deal, to reaffirm their support for Scottish fishing to stay out of the CFP, and to back calls for both of Scotland’s governments to get behind our fisheries sector and to work together to deliver the bright future we all know it can have”.
