Ministers have pledged to use Britain’s EU divorce as an opportunity to reclaim control of the country’s territorial waters and have rejected linking fishing rights to a future trade deal with Brussels.
This has infuriated the regional fisheries committee in Northern France, who are behind the threats to blockade Calais.
Its chairman Olivier Lepretre said: “If there is a hard Brexit, I can assure you that not a single kilo of seafood or fish from Britain will get into France.
“We would set up barricades. All the fishermen along the northern French coast will tell you the same thing.”
Under the EU’s rules, foreign fishing boats are granted up to 70 percent of the quotas for ground stocks in British waters.
Britain currently exports around 75 percent of its catch overseas, of which 75 percent goes is sold on the EU’s market.
Mr Lepretre bemoaned that foreign fishermen if blocked from British waters after Brexit wouldn’t simply target French stocks instead.
He said: “We will find Belgian, Dutch and Spanish boats crammed into French waters.”
