Government urged to abandon EU fisheries policy that’s cost Brit fishermen £80 BILLION

BRITAIN’S blighted fishing industry has lost more than £80 billion from EU boats trawling UK waters, a damning new report finds.

Data compiled by the Fishing for Leave group shows European fishermen have taken an average of £3.5 billion per year worth of fish out of UK waters since 1983.

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Last night they hit out at the “betrayal” and called on the PM to make fishing the “acid test” of Brexit.

Fisherman Alan Hastings told The Sun: “We could fund the Royal Navy with that amount of money.”

He went on: “Our report and database shows the colossal level of resources and billions of pounds that have been robbed from the UK every year through our membership of the EU and disastrous Common Fisheries Policy.”

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“This has been an abject betrayal of the UK coastal communities and the nation as a whole.”

“EU fishermen do not travel to the UK’s waters for the scenery - they do so due to our rich fishing grounds.”

Under the CFP of “equal access to a common resource” the UK only can only take a 25 per cent share out of our own stock, despite having 48 per cent of the European waters.

And the fisherman are urging the government not to “squander the opportunity” by adopting EU fishing policy into the promised Great Repeal Bill that will bring all EU laws under Parliament’s control.

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Mr Hastings said: “Article 50, as agreed, says the Treaties ‘shall cease to apply’”, adding that anything else would be an “ utter betrayal of Brexit.”

And he said it is easy to monitor foreign boats after a clampdown.

He said: “All vessels over 12 metres are monitored by satellite, we are all watched on a screen.

“If we go into the Norwegian sector they know straight away and are escorted into Bergen and made an example of.”

He added: “There is no reason the UK cannot do the same.”

“If Brexit was about “taking back control of our borders” then fishing is the “acid test” of Brexit”

“Fishing could be a beacon of success for the government.”