TORIES are preparing to “sell out” the Scottish fishing industry, the SNP has claimed, after the Foreign Secretary said European vessels would maintain access to Scottish waters in a Brexit deal.

Dominic Raab was yesterday pressed by the BBC’s Andrew Marr on whether or not foreign trawlers would be given good access to UK waters following an agreement on a post-Brexit trade deal.

Raab repeatedly refused to give a direct answer before admitting “that will be a subject of negotiation.

“We say to the SNP ‘don’t give up, don’t sacrifice the rights of Scottish fishermen to the EU’, and we’ll engage in a negotiation about quotas and things like that.

“There will be absolutely optimum access for the UK.”

He went on to say: “We’ll have total control rather than being subject to EU rules and that’s the difference.”

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However, Marr pointed out that one of Raab’s colleagues had previously quit over Theresa May’s Brexit deal, before the camera switched to the words of Boris Johnson December last year: “Theresa May’s deal hands the EU the indefinite power to bully and blackmail this country to get whatever it wants in future negotiations.

“And if history teaches us anything, it is that our European friends will not desist until they have worked out a way to plunder the waters of Scotland for their fish.”

Raab denied the current agreement and May’s were “word for word the same”, but Paul Robertson, the SNP candidate for Banff and Buchan, said: “Yet again, the Tories are preparing to sell Scottish fishing out. The sheer hypocrisy of the Tories is breath-taking – it’s now beyond doubt that they cannot be trusted to stand up for Scotland’s fishing industry.

“Despite all their broken promises and hollow words, it is clear the Tories are ready to trade away Scottish fishing and access to Scottish waters for their own narrow interests.”

He said the party had repeatedly claimed that crashing out of the EU against our will would be good for Scotland’s fisheries, despite all the evidence to the contrary, adding: “In reality, and by their own admission, concessions on Scottish fishing will now be on the table in a Tory Brexit trade deal and Scotland is set to lose out once again.

“Unlike the Tories, the SNP will always stand up for Scotland’s fishing sector. If Scotland had a seat at the EU top table we would put Scotland’s interests at the heart of negotiations – and not throw our interests under a Boris Brexit bus like the Tories have. At this crucial election, a vote for the SNP is a vote to protect Scottish fishing, escape the damaging Brexit crisis, and put Scotland’s future in Scotland’s hands – not Boris Johnson’s.”

On Twitter, Robertson called the Tory’s promises “utterly disingenuous” and shared a picture highlighting the wording of Johnson’s deal.