Dr. Philippa Whitford:

Yes. Fishing is a largely totemic issue, in that it is a small part of the overall UK economy, but it is critical for vulnerable coastal communities. In Scotland, I think of the island communities in particular. For them, it is a large part of their economy and local cultures and structures. It is an important industry in certain areas. Scotland has the majority of the UK's fishing industry.

It seems to be the key sector where people supporting Brexit could come up with a positive, as in the UK gaining more quota by leaving the Common Fisheries Policy.

A lot of the problems with quota in the UK do not relate to the Common Fisheries Policy. In Scotland, 80% of boats share just 1% of quota. In England, it is 77% of boats sharing 3% of quota. That is because quota in the UK was allowed to be bought and sold. Indeed, many skippers sold their quota to Dutch and Spanish fleets, and that does not change.

There is a lot of talk about the benefit of extra quota for the catching sector of the industry. Particularly if we have a no-deal with tariffs, the more one processes that fish, whether one trims, freezes or smokes it, the more tariffs start to climb.

Of course, we also have the live industry and the fresh industry. For them, the sudden imposition of paperwork and the cost of that paperwork as well as the delays that are expected between Dover and Calais would mean that the langoustines that come from my constituency could be worthless by the time the product arrives in Europe or significantly more expensive. If tariffs of 12% were introduced, it is estimated that would be £1 per kilo and as the boats are only paid £4 per kilo then that is a significant loss from the supply chain.

The attitude was one of we will get all of this quota back. However, the industry is much smaller than it was so it would take time to build up. The problem is that the UK exports about 70% of what it catches but imports about 70% of what it eats so we need a market to sell the fish we catch into and that just was not discussed back in 2016. It has been held up as a totemic issue but my local fishermen and, indeed, fishermen across Scotland, including the big players, are now very concerned about what the reality of Brexit means for the fishing industry.