Royal Navy sends four warships into English Channel

Royal Navy sends four warships into English Channel

Source: daily mail

1/2/2021

The Royal Navy sent four warships into the English Channel to warn French trawlers to stay away from British fish as the Brexit deal came into force.

Hours before the deal took effect on New Year's Day the boats, armed with cannons and machine guns, left Portsmouth to put a stop to any illegal fishing in UK fishing grounds.

The £100million ship HMS Trent led the mission, flanked by HMS Tamar, HMS Tyne and HMS Mersey - all of which have been assigned to protect the new fishing rights agreed in the trade deal.

Under the terms of the Brexit trade deal, boats from France and the rest of the EU can still fish in British water but over the next five-and-a-half years a quarter of their quota will be handed over to the UK.

Talk of naval vessels being dispatched to deal with any clashes in fishing grounds if a trade deal was not agreed with the EU were floated in the run up to New Year's Day and, despite reaching a settlement, the boats still left Portsmouth at the end of 2020.