‘They made a mess of Brexit’: France taunts UK government over Christmas turkey shortages

There are fears many Christmas essentials will be in short supply or missing
LNP

France threatened to cut off supplies of Christmas turkeys unless continental fishermen are allowed to work in British waters.

European Affairs Minister Clement Beaune lashed out at the UK’s Brexit “failures” in a series of incendiary remarks.

He said that France’s trawlermen would not “pay the price” for the UK’s decision to leave the EU.

Mr Beaune, senior ally of president Emmanuel Macron, continued: “Stop telling us you do not need us anymore, stop being obsessed with us, stop believing that we will solve your problems.

“They made a mess of Brexit. It’s their choice and their failure, not ours. It was a bad choice, we see that today.

“It’s not by badmouthing our fishermen, threatening us every day, being bad players and creating red tape or problems for Europeans, the French, and our fishermen in particular, that you will solve turkey shortages at Christmas.

“We will hold firm. Britain needs us to sell their products, including from fishing, they need us for their energy, they need us for their financial services, they need us for their research centres. All this gives us pressure points.”

AP

Paris has previously suggested Britain’s imported energy supply could be disrupted in retaliation for a lack of access to UK waters.

Mr Beaune said France could reduce, but not entirely cut, electricity supplies to Jersey as part of “targeted retaliation measures” if Britain continues not to “respect the agreement”.

“Reducing supplies is possible; cutting the power to every Jersey resident this winter – that will not happen,” the minister said.

Mr Beaune said France had asked for 450 fishing licences in the Brexit deal, but had only been granted 275.

In all of this, France could reduce its degree of co-operation with the UK, he warned.

Earlier this week, French fishing industry representatives threatened to block the port of Calais and stop cross-Channel exports to the UK in the run-up to Christmas.

Rex

French fury was sparked after the Government announced last month that it had approved just 12 of the 47 applications it had received from French small boats.

Those denied licences were unable to prove a track record of fishing activity in the six-to-12 nautical mile zone in the years before the UK’s departure from the EU.

According to a UK Government spokesman, the approach had been “fully in line” with the UK’s commitments in the Trade and Co-operation Agreement agreed as part of the Brexit divorce deal.

The cross-Channel tensions over-fishing have been long-running, with earlier rows leading to Navy ships being scrambled to Jersey amid concerns of a blockade of the island.

The French have also previously used the energy supply threat to try to gain ground in the Brexit row.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

MORE ABOUT