Brexit will net trawlermen an extra £100m

FISHERMEN will be able to net £101million more in catches this year than would have been possible if Britain were still an EU member.

Analysis published by the Government shows that leaving the bloc has boosted the quota the UK has secured by 117,000 tonnes.

It reveals that overall British trawlermen will have been able to land £262million worth of extra fish in the first three years of Brexit.

The news will come as another boost to Rishi Sunak after his deal to end the Northern Ireland standoff sailed through the Commons.

Taking back control of fishing waters was a key selling point of Brexit, with eurosceptics saying that doing so would boost coastal communities.

Brussels set the quotas which determined the maximum number of each species that UK boats could land each year prior to Brexit.

A trade deal was struck in 2020 which will see a quarter of the the bloc’s previous share of fish transferred to Britain by June 2026.

After that point European boats will lose their automatic right to use UK waters. Government figures show that the total tonnage boats will be allowed to catch this year has gone up by 11 per cent to 667,000.

That means UK vessels have been granted £754 million worth of fishing opportunities, up from £715 million last year. “This uplift is estimated to be worth around £101 million,” it said in a statement.