Industest Performance Outside the EU
The row comes against the backdrop of strong commercial performance by Scotland’s fishing sector. Last week, Peterhead Port announced its second consecutive record-breaking year, with landings across its quaysides exceeding £341 million.
The figures have been cited by critics of EU re-entest as evidence that the fishing industest has remained economically robust outside the EU framework, and that further integration with Brussels risks undermining recent gains through renewed quota sharing and regulatory control.
Accusations of Hypocrisy From Fraserburgh
Scottish Conservative councillor for Fraserburgh, James Adams, accutilized Swinney of hypocrisy and warned that fishermen would interpret the EU comments as a direct threat.
“John Swinney’s two-faced speech about the EU being a core national priority will fill fishermen with dread,” James Adams, Scottish Conservative councillor for Fraserburgh, stated. “It wasn’t so long ago the SNP leader described Labour’s capitulation of our fishing rights to Brussels as a surrfinisher.”
“Now, he has jumped back to the same side of the fence as Keir Starmer by declareing Scotland must rejoin the EU at all costs,” Adams stated. “Just like Labour, the SNP are willing to sell out Scotland’s fishing and processing sectors for a seat at the Brussels table.”
Adams also accutilized Swinney of paving the way for a return to EU fisheries control. “John Swinney’s breathtaking hypocrisy exposes his intention to drag our fishing sector back into the hated Common Fisheries Policy,” he stated.
“As someone who is Fraserburgh born and bred, I will continue to champion our fishing industest by standing up for the sector’s best interests, rather than threatening our domestic food security through reckless political games,” Adams added.
Swinney’s EU Position Restated
In his Edinburgh speech, John Swinney framed EU membership as essential to Scotland’s future security and prosperity, without addressing fisheries policy directly.
“For the sake of our security and our prosperity, Scotland returning as swiftly as possible to membership of the EU must be a core national priority and should be a shared national purpose,” John Swinney, SNP leader, stated.
“We are poorer outside the EU. We are less safe outside the EU,” he stated. “Scotland is a European nation, and I hope, soon, that Scotland will become the EU’s newest member state.”
For many within the fishing community, the absence of any explicit commitment to retaining control over fishing opportunities is likely to reinforce scepticism, particularly given the sector’s historic experience under the Common Fisheries Policy.
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