Announcing the launch of the UK Fisheries Campaign!

Grassroots membership group aims to restore and support a great British tradition

Montage © Facts4EU.Org 2025

Your chance to join fishermen, politicians, and media figures, and put fisheries back on course

We are delighted to announce the launch of the UK Fisheries Campaign (UKFC): a grassroots membership body for fishermen and the general public, supported by some of the key groups, and formed to promote the interests of those who brave the UK’s seas in all weathers to bring us some of the healthiest and most nutritious food we can eat.

The UK Fisheries Campaign is non-partisan and not-for-profit.

The UKFC is supported in practical ways to get the message out by Facts4EU in association with CIBUK.Org and we have the added bonus of having GB News, the fastest-growing news channel in the UK, who will be covering our activities on the GBN website and in their TV programming. Some of the stories we have been researching over many weeks are truly astonishing and we will be providing readers with links when GB News covers these.

Menu: 'The Fish Course'

Intro: “Remember how our fishermen were thrown overboard when we left the EU?”
Part I: “In the 5th year of Brexit, EU fishermen continue taking vast quantities of British fish.”
Part II: UKFC CAMPAIGN LAUNCH - “Announcing the launch of the UK Fisheries Campaign!”
Part III: “‘Us’ versus ‘Them’ - and here’s how we win. The tide is turning against ‘the Blob’.”
Part IV: Weekend summary and next week lookahead
Coming: More gripping stories in this compelling series from the UK Fisheries Campaign!

The UKFC is independent.

We rely for funding on the British public and their fishermen.

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The UKFC - For a sea-change in the fortunes of our fishermen and our coastal communities

Why is the UK Fisheries Campaign needed?

For years the UK’s fishermen have registered their profound concerns over the way fishing has been managed, monitored, and controlled in this country. Over the past 10 years Facts4EU has researched and published many reports about this but the problems go back even further, to the first days of the establishment of the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy.

It is now more than four years since the new post-Brexit fishing arrangements were implemented following the UK-EU Withdrawal Agreement and the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement. Despite vehement protests of their total betrayal by the government at the time, the UK’s fishermen have subsequently been forced to work within these arrangements.

A new and dreaded deadline for our fishermen

Having faced what to them are intolerable working arrangements, things for our fishermen are about to get a whole lot worse, as we will explain further down. The current arrangements are due to expire next year (2026) and a new set will have to be agreed during the remainder of this year. Past experience tells us this will take around a year to complete and the UK’s fishermen fear they will once again be sidelined.

In short, matters have now reached a head with the current framework and we have been unable to find a single fisherman with one good word to say about the government’s policies or its fisheries agencies.

The new EU agreement for next year could prove to make matters even worse. Added to this there is new talk in Brussels indicating that Sir Keir Starmer’s much-vaunted ‘EU Re-set’ and proposed defence deal will be a non-starter without first agreeing to an even more generous fishing settlement than the EU already has.

This would be the final straw for a great many fishermen.

It truly is time for the UK Fisheries Campaign to launch!

Yesterday we gave the ‘exclusive’ in advance to GB News and today we are officially launching the Campaign. We begin with Part I of a series of reports we have been researching for many weeks. It is an extraordinary story, as you will see.

With Rachel Reeves’ Spring Statement dominating the news today, we will use the time to prepare for what we hope will be an important segment on GB News tomorrow or Friday.

Click the image below for our first report!

Montage © Facts4EU.Org 2025

We have interviewed many fishermen from across the country, reviewed countless official documents, taken eyewitness statements, and we have spent time authenticating photographs and videos. All of this illustrates the sheer scale of the problem and why our fishermen need the public’s help.

Yes, we need your help today

Firstly we invite all local fishermen’s groups to contact us with a view to being part of this. Secondly we invite all readers to join the Campaign. Thirdly, we are keen to speak to more politicians who would like to know more and who might help us by joining our Political Advisory Group.

Join us now!

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Next story on this - TV's Martin Daubney to promote the campaign - more info here!

Finally, we would very much like to find a generous sponsor who could transform what we can achieve. As a not-for-profit group, membership fees are highly unlikely to be sufficient to cover the costs of what we need to do, to be truly effective in today’s competitive online and media world.

We will leave you with the words of one of our political supporters

Tim Eagle MSP is a Member of the Scottish Parliament in Holyrood, representing Highlands and Islands Region. He is also Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Fishing. A farmer and family man, Tim has been actively involved in supporting Scottish fishermen and has thrown his support behind the UK Fisheries Campaign for the whole nation.

A message from Tim Eagle MSP to the new UK Fisheries Campaign

“I am delighted to see the launch of the UK Fisheries Campaign and am pleased to announce my full support.
“I am very aware of these concerns being raised by fishermen. These are not one-off events, with pictures and reports being passed to me regularly. Fishermen are deeply concerned about what is continuing to happen in our waters, and serious questions must be answered.

Tim Eagle MSP

“I increasingly believe we need a full investigation so we can be reassured that our vital fishermen are operating on a level playing field. Having the Facts4EU Special Investigations Team is a real bonus, as UKFC’s first report shows. It is crucial we continue to shine a light on what fishing means for the United Kingdom and how we ensure post EU-exit that our fishermen are allowed to succeed.”
- Tim Eagle MSP, Holyrood, Edinburgh, 24 Mar 2025

Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Wed 26 Mar 2025

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Reader Comments 7

1. Sparky , Wednesday, March 26, 2025, 08:52:

Investment Monitor covered the fishing industry in a piece in 2021 titled “Who killed the British fishing industry”. Essentially the decline started long before the UK joined the EU with over fishing being a significant but not the only factor.
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Brexit then instead of saving the industry as it was promising to do it did even more harm by creating barriers to trade of a time sensitive product.
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Good to be reminded of some of the false and broken promises of Brexit in yesterday’s piece. One to add. Owen Patterson MP (wonder what happened to him). “An opportunity to restore the industry”.
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Good piece in West Country News in 2024 “How fishing was gutted by Brexit” with some past quotes from Nigel F.

2. Gazzablack , Wednesday, March 26, 2025, 09:40:

1, sparkless
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You'll be quoting the Beano and the Dandy next.

3. NH , Wednesday, March 26, 2025, 10:28:

1. Sp.
The UK exported approx. £1 Billion fish and shellfish to France in 2024 and over £250 million to the USA. We import and export different species of fish all over the world so your claim that you have to be in the EU to trade fish is just your normal fabricated nonsense. It's difficult to compare fish production over time because catches are often restricted by stock levels and this seems to be made worse by constant reports of EU fishing vessels plundering and over-fishing UK stocks.
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No other natural resource is shared between EU countries free of charge. If the UK fishing industry does not have the capacity to fish over own stocks then access to these stocks should be charged at a price set by the UK.

4. LuxuryBalloon , Wednesday, March 26, 2025, 12:22:

No foreign fishing boats should be allowed to fish in our waters … and our fishermen should be allowed to fish in Norwegian, Icelandic and Greenland waters.

5. Sparky , Thursday, March 27, 2025, 06:59:

3 NH. Loads of detail in the pieces I have referred to including links to sources. Summary from the piece. "The increased red tape, increased costs, and labour shortages in the processing section of the industry saw seafood exports fall from 452 thousand tonnes in 2019 to 330 thousand tonnes in 2022 according to government figures".

6. NH , Thursday, March 27, 2025, 09:59:

5. Sp.
Here's another quote from the article you have referred to:
"The decline of the UK fishing industry has many factors behind it, with membership of the EEC and then the EU seemingly being used as a smokescreen when overfishing and flawed quota systems were much larger culprits"

7. Sparky , Friday, March 28, 2025, 06:06:

6 NH. That makes my point. Membership of the EEC and EU has been used as a smoke screen. The decline of the UK fishing industry has been due to overfishing, (damaging methods of fishing which destroy the fishing breeding areas), and flawed quotas.
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However. Not mentioned in the pieces, fishing boats having to throw back fish caught, often dead, was ridiculous and unsustainable. Why weren't our MP's and MEP's like Nigel Farage doing something about it. Nigel was too busy claiming his salary, expenses and now his EU Pension.

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