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A top Brexiteer minister today admitted that European Union fishermen could be handed rights to fish in UK waters after Brexit.

Asked to promise British fishermen would “not be sold out” in Brexit negotiations, Defra minister George Eustice told MPs that the UK would “manage access to our own waters” in future.

His words left open the possibility the EU could succeed in demanding fishing rights in return for a trade deal.

The issue was raised a day after the EU issued a document saying it would seek “reciprocal” fishing rights in the trade talks which begin this month.

In the Commons Tory MP Martin Vickers demanded that “the fishing industry will not be sold out in these negotiations as they were in the Seventies”.

Mr Eustice replied: “We have consistently been clear that when we leave the European Union we leave the Common Fisheries Policy. That means under international law we become an independent coastal state and we will manage the fisheries resources in our exclusive economic zone and manage access to our own waters.” His words did not exclude reciprocal rights with the EU.

Chancellor Philip Hammond appeared to suggest fishing rights could be traded away yesterday in a Q&A.

He said: “We would be open to discussing with our EU partners about the appropriate arrangements for reciprocal access for our fishermen to EU waters and for EU fishermen to our waters. We would have to negotiate the basis on which such an arrangement could be fair and appropriate for us.”

Bertie Armstrong, chief executive of the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation, strongly rejected the EU demand.

He said: “There cannot be ‘fairer shares’ for our fishing communities if we maintain existing reciprocal access. This latest gambit must be rejected.”

Repatriating fishing rights was a key promise made by Brexiteeers in the EU referendum in coastal communities.

Former deputy prime minister Nick Clegg today warned that Gibraltar will be more vulnerable to attempts by Spain to seize its sovereignty following Brexit. Gibraltar’s chief minister Fabian Picardo was in London today for talks with Brexit ministers over the negotiations.