AS an island country, fishing has always played an important role in our economy and welfare but tragically we have seen our fishing fleets decimated by EU legislation.

During the Referendum campaign the fishing community of this country was one of the loudest voices in the Leave camp as they have seen first-hand how disastrous EU policy has been to our country.

With the Brexit vote it was hoped that we could reclaim the 200-mile exclusive economic zone to which we are entitled under international law and repatriate the 70% of the total allowable catch in British waters that are currently taken by EU vessels.

However, government ministers have confirmed that the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) will be included in the Great Repeal Bill, which will transpose all EU law onto the British statute books for a transitional period, with MPs then set to go through each individual piece and decide what should be kept, amended or binned.

Frankly this is an abject betrayal of Brexit and my colleague, Mike Hookem, UKIP's fisheries spokesman, has launched a petition to force the government to remove it from the repeal bill.

Paul Nuttall, Ukip MEP, North West