Nigel Farage has been branded a hypocrite for making a film ostensibly to ‘highlight the plight of the British fisherman’, when he did nothing to protect them while personally on the EU fisheries committee.
The former UKIP leader took to the water with a production team from LBC aboard fishing boat ‘The Boy Joshua’ on an expedition “to examine the impact of the Common Fisheries Policy” on British fisherman. Farage claims that the quotas British fisherman receive under the policy stop them from earning a living, and he blames the situation on Brussels.
At no point in the film does Farage admit that he was on the EU fisheries committee for three years, one of the members of the Brussels bureaucrats he so often rails about. When he had the chance to fight for British fisherman, Farage only turned up to one out of 42 meetings and even when in the building failed to show up to votes designed fix the flaws in the CFP.
Farage is not the only leading Brexit figure that has attempted to manipulate the plight of British fishermen. During the EU referendum campaign, Michael Gove repeatedly claimed that the CFP caused his family financial hardship and forced his father to sell his fishing business. Gove’s version of events was contradicted by his father in an interview with the Guardian.
The Common Fisheries Policy was introduced by the EU in the 1970s and aims to ensure the sustainability of fishing and aquaculture in the waters around Europe. It gives all European fishing fleets equal access to EU waters and fishing grounds and allows fishermen to compete fairly for the limited stocks available while protecting the waters from overfishing.
