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The trawler Kirkella, described as the 'pride of the UK's distant-waters fishing fleet', has been stuck in Hull since December

Credit: PA

Kirkella, which can freeze up to 780 tonnes of cod and haddock on its trips, has been tied up in St George’s Dock, Hull, since returning from its last trip at the beginning of December.

In a letter to the Prime Minister, Karl Turner, the Labour MP for Hull East, said he wanted to know the Government’s plan to secure continued access to the quotas the UK has caught historically in the Norwegian Economic Zone (NEZ) in and around the Barents Sea.

The MP said he also wanted to know about plans to secure access to the waters around Svalbard, Greenland and Iceland.

Freight lorries are parked at a truck stop off the M20 leading to Dover near Folkestone in Kent in December 2020, after France closed its borders to accompanied freight arriving from the UK due to the rapid spread of a new coronavirus strain

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Chief executive of UK Fisheries, Jane Sandell, said: "Talks between the UK, the EU and Norway are only beginning now, and there is no certainty unless the Government seriously raises its game that we will get anything like the quota we need in distant waters that will make fishing economically viable for us.”

A UK Government spokesman said: "The UK has secured a Fisheries Framework Agreement with Norway and the Faroe Islands, which provides the legal basis for annual negotiations on fishing opportunities and potential access to each other’s waters.

"Negotiations for fishing opportunities in 2021 will be concluded as soon as possible."