Nigel Farage dumps dead fish in Thames in protest over Brexit transition deal

Nigel Farage dumped dead fish into the Thames as he led a protest against the Government's Brexit transition deal.

The former UKIP leader and other Leave campaigners sailed on a fishing trawler dubbed "HMS Brexit", stopping outside Parliament to ceremonially throw crates of dead haddock overboard.

Watching on from the Commons balcony were a small gathering of MPs - including Tory Sir Desmond Swayne, carrying a Union Jack flag.

The stunt came after Brexiteers slammed the Government's agreement that the UK will only be "consulted" on fishing quotas during the Brexit transition, a deal Environment Secretary Michael Gove admitted was "sub-optimal".

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Mr Farage said he was "very" disappointed and that "promises were made that haven't been kept".

He told Sky News: "The ludicrous situation is that haddock stocks in the West Country are very good indeed.

"And yet the total allocation of haddock for the British fleet is 9%.

"What that means is the guys are going out fishing for other species, catching haddock because they can't avoid them - and fish like this are being thrown back dead.

"It's just mad, the whole thing."

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He added: "I don't think this Government's got the guts or the strength to stand up and take back our territorial waters."

Mr Farage admitted the fishing protest reminded him of the clash between Leave and Remain campaigners in 2016 - when Sir Bob Geldof led a flotilla of boats to disrupt a Brexiteer stunt.

There were similarly comic scenes on Wednesday, when the Fishing for Leave organisers realised they could not dock at Embankment Pier for a press conference led by backbench Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg.

A Transport for London spokeswoman told Sky News no permission had been given to the group to dock, leaving the boat officially named "Holladays R8" to do laps on the Thames.

A police boat later followed them back up the river.

Pro-EU campaign group Best for Britain said: "The Brexiteers are lost at sea with a stupid stunt like this. Today's comedy of errors is a metaphor for their Brexit plans.

"Taking back control from faceless bureaucrats maybe needs to start with Transport for London who run the pier they tried to dock at. All in all this was a fishing farce that made them all look ridiculous."

The European Parliament's Brexit co-ordinator Guy Verhofstadt said Nigel Farage "should have done his job as a member of the fisheries committee" of MEPs rather than "throwing dead fish in the Thames".