By William Mills

Ray Finch

Ray Finch is an MEP who won a seat in the South East super constituency in 2014 and became UKIP’s spokesperson on fisheries. Before which he worked as an aide to leader Nigel Farage. He is now standing as UKIP’s parliamentary candidate in Lewes.

In an exclusive interview on the quayside at Newhaven surrounded by fishermen who support UKIP Finch spoke passionately about how the fishermen have been let down by the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy right from the very start.

In 1970 the EU, or Common Market as it was then known, consisted of the original six members states. Britain and a number of other countries applied to join negotiating their entry terms and conditions.

Ray Finch said;

It goes back to six hours before our accession talks were due to start on 30 June 1970. All of a sudden a quick decision was made with the agricultural ministers of the original six. Now 90% of Western Europe’s fisheries were in the accession countries. 80% was in the UK waters so it was just a resources grab.Ted Heath[Conservative primeminister at the time] just said ‘Let it go. Let them swallow it and swallow it whole.’ Since then nothing has gone right for us. As with everything with the EU it is a big corporate scam. I am UKIP’s fisheries spokesman and co-ordinator on the fisheries committee in the European parliament. It is all talk for big business, mostly for the Spanish fleets which are the third biggest in the world. Everything goes for them but the problems we are having in Africa as well come down to this because of the so called third nation agreements. What happens is the EU grabs a big bag of the taxpayers’ money hands it to the various dictators in charge of these poor benighted countries and says ‘we will use your fishing now so what happens is all of these big factory ships they come in and swept the seas clean of fish and are a major part of the protein for people in Africa. The people there have a choice; they can either go to people smuggling, drug smuggling or starve. So it doesn’t leave them any viable option and causes huge impoverishment and deprivation in the third world, particularly in Africa. So that is one of the main reasons the Common Fisheries Policy is an absolute disaster.

Asked about his bid to become the next MP for Lewes Finch said;

I have no personal links with Lewes but I have spoken here on many occasions in the past. The UKIP branches frequently ask me to do open meetings and I love the place. Also it is one of the hotbeds of English radicalism and to be honest November 5 is what English radicalisation is about. It is about giving two fingers to the establishment and any politician worth their salt actually wants one day to be the figure which is burned there. It is all about unfortunately the people who call themselves radicals in England now. They are not radicals. They want the status quo to carry on. They like things as they are. We are the only radical party. I thought it would be great as I’ve always seen myself as a working class radical and I see myself as a counterpoint to these tall, worthy middle class clowns who try to be the voice of radicalism. I’m not criticising any of my fellow candidates. I’ve spoken to them all and they are all very pleasant, very nice people but they are still wrong.

If you got elected would you move to Lewes?