Brexit fallout could spark fresh fishing war with French trawlers blockading ports

ANGRY French fishermen could blockade key cross-channel ports if they are snubbed during Brexit trade talks, it has been reported.
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Whitehall officials have told ministers there is a ‘very realistic chance’ French ports could be sealed off to UK trade by fishermen, in what’s been branded a ‘nightmare’ scenario.

The warning comes after prime minister Boris Johnson vowed EU fishing vessels would be barred from British waters unless a trade agreement is struck by December.

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The Honeybourne 3, a Scottish scallop dredger, in dock at Shoreham, West Sussex, following clashes with French fishermen in the English Channel in August 2018. Photo: Andrew Matthews/PA WireThe Honeybourne 3, a Scottish scallop dredger, in dock at Shoreham, West Sussex, following clashes with French fishermen in the English Channel in August 2018. Photo: Andrew Matthews/PA Wire
The Honeybourne 3, a Scottish scallop dredger, in dock at Shoreham, West Sussex, following clashes with French fishermen in the English Channel in August 2018. Photo: Andrew Matthews/PA Wire
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Any fallout could spark a fresh fishing war – embroiling the Royal Navy’s fleet of fishery protection vessels, which would be used to protect British waters and shipping.

Highlighted as a particular risk of being blockaded by the French, if Brexit talks fail to deliver an agreeable solution, is Calais.

Ministers have been told even a small scale protect could severely impact the UK’s economy.

About 17 per cent of the UK’s trade in goods, worth more than £100bn a year, passed between Dover and Calais.

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‘We are uniquely vulnerable when it comes to moving goods across the short straits,’ one Whitehall source told The Times. ‘In the event of the blockade there is very little we could do. It would all be up to the French government.’

French president Emmanuel Macron has warned other EU leaders that a failure to secure a good deal for European fishermen would trigger street protests and civil unrest in France, diplomatic sources claimed.

Blockade of French ports, focusing on Calais, would begin within 24 hours of European boats being barred from UK waters, French ministers have been told.

Unrest could spread quickly from France to Belgian and Dutch fishermen, with blockades potentially seeing key ports of Zeebrugge and Rotterdam, sealed off, The Times said.

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Meanwhile, Portsmouth’s fleet of fishery protection ships could be called into action to keep the peace.

Admiral Lord Alan West, the former head of the Royal Navy, warned Britain had ‘insufficient ships within the fishery protection squadron to carry out enforcement’.

The Labour peer’s comments were made during a debate in the House of Lords earlier this month

In August 2018, a British trawler was petrol bombed by French rivals in a row over scallops.

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