A FURTHER roadblock has come to light for food producers in Scotland, as the latest Brexit transition deal revealed an unfavourable outcome for the country's fishing industry.

Under the deal, fishing opportunities will continue to be negotiated by the EU during the two-year transition period, which is unwelcome news to fisherman who had hoped to regain sovereignty over our waters when the UK left the Common Fisheries Policy as of March 2019.

Bertie Armstrong from the Scottish Fisherman’s Federation expressed his anger: “This deal falls far short of what is acceptable, no sooner do we regain sovereignty over our waters and the resources in it, than we hand it straight back seconds later to the EU for this interim period up to the end of 2020.

“That is no sort of acceptable deal, we do not trust the EU to look after our interests. They need to be careful what they do to us now during this interim period because we will have our sovereignty back at the end of this,” stressed Mr Armstrong.

It was only last week that Scottish Conservatives leader Ruth Davidson and DEFRA secretary Michael Gove issued a joint statement to show their support for Theresa May committing to Britain leaving the Common Fisheries Policy as of March 2019. Ms Davidson had insisted it was vital that Scotland regained control over its own fisheries management – so also expressed her disappointment at the development.

"During these negotiations, we wanted to gain control over our waters from as early as the end of next year," said Ms Davidson. "The EU was not willing to move on this. That we now have to wait until 2020 to assume full control is an undoubted disappointment.

"Having spoken to fishing leaders today, I know they are deeply frustrated with this outcome. There is no ignoring the fact that this falls short of what they had hoped for in the short-term. I've made clear to them that I will continue to do everything in my power to ensure their interests are protected during the implementation period and beyond," she said.

The Scottish Government declared their disapproval of the fishing announcement, with rural economy secretary Fergus Ewing bluntly accusing the Tories of selling out Scotland’s interests: "Ruth Davidson should be shame-faced for her fastest broken Brexit promise yet. Just last week she said Britain will leave the CFP as of March 2019. Now we know not only will the UK have to abide by CFP rules during the transition period, it will lose the voting rights it has now. The Tories have delivered the worst possible outcome for Scotland's fishing industry.

"It is outrageous that Ruth Davidson and Michael Gove could have issued such a misleading statement last weekend when they must have known what was about to happen – and they must both now apologise for their broken promise. The Tories have demonstrated once again that for them Scottish interests are expendable," stressed Mr Ewing.