Fishing industry leaders have clashed openly with Scottish ministers over Nicola Sturgeon’s campaign to keep Scotland in the EU, warning that they are opposed to her efforts to resist Brexit.

On Monday, a delegation from the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation told the Scottish rural economy secretary, Fergus Ewing, that trawler workers had unanimously supported the UK-wide vote to leave the EU, unlike the majority of Scottish voters.

The SFF delivered an implied warning that Scotland’s vocal fishing industry, which played a key role in organising an anti-EU protest flotilla on the Thames a week before the referendum, would fight efforts to protect the country’s EU membership.

The gulf between the two sides was made clear when the federation refused to sign off on a joint statement with Ewing after their meeting, instead issuing a solo statement that said there was “a significant divergence in our approach to EU membership”.



Sturgeon is campaigning vigorously for Scotland to keep the closest possible ties with the EU after it voted 62% in favour of remaining.

If this fails, a second referendum on Scottish independence, based heavily on retaining EU membership, is “highly likely”, the first minister has said.

Bertie Armstrong, the SFF chief executive, said the industry believed that quitting the EU and the common fisheries policy would bring “real and positive opportunities” for fishing communities, the largest of which are in the Scottish National party’s heartlands of north-east Scotland.

The constituency of Moray, which is held at Holyrood by the former rural affairs secretary Richard Lochhead and sits west of the major fishing ports of Peterhead and Fraserburgh, is the most Eurosceptic area in Scotland.

While many parts of Scotland voted heavily in favour of the EU, Moray came within 122 votes of backing leave at the referendum. Across Scotland, it is estimated that about 30% of SNP voters supported the leave campaign – the largest anti-EU group in the country.

The SFF talks were partly aimed at reinforcing the fishing industry’s political power. There are substantial private anxieties that the UK and Scottish governments could see fishing quotas as bargaining chips that they can use in order to win other concessions from the EU during negotiations.

Armstrong said leaving the common fisheries policy would give the UK far greater influence and control over its very large fishing grounds, increasing their economic value.

The UK would have the same status and influence in future quota deals with independent nations such as Norway and Iceland, with the EU relegated to being one partner in those talks.

Speaking before the meeting, Armstrong said EU fisheries policy was currently decided by 28 countries in the Council of the European Union, even though fewer than half of EU member states have a fishing industry.

“In the same way our oil and gas sector benefits from the UK’s territorial reach, it brings the opportunity of making Britain the controlling partner in the northern continental shelf,” Armstrong said. “We would be able to exert a positive influence on the way that fisheries are managed, working with other nations in a partnership approach.”

Ewing admitted that there were deep differences between the two sides and said he was very anxious to keep talking to the industry about agreeing a common agenda.

“I recognise that differences exist between the Scottish government’s desire to explore all possible options to protect Scotland’s place in Europe and the SFF’s position,” he said.

“It is vital that we seek a better mutual understanding of what those differences mean in practical terms. It is also important for us to carry on and address immediate and short-term issues, and I am pleased that we will continue to engage on those. I have assured SFF that I will continue to champion [the] Scottish fishing industry’s interests, despite the huge uncertainties we now have, and intend fully to do so.”