Cop26 news latest: Boris Johnson ‘right to be pessimistic’ on climate hack, warns Nicola Sturgeon

[ad_1]

The French foreign minister said France has 48 hours to back down from the fishing threats or the UK will take legal action over the dispute.

Speaking as the key climate summit Cop26 kicks off, Liz Truss dismissed suggestions for a deal, showing no sign of the UK changing its position, warning that the UK would seek “compensatory measures” if France did not “back down”.

Ms Truss told Sky News: “The French have made completely unreasonable threats, including to the Channel Islands and our fishing industry, and they need to withdraw these threats or else we will use the mechanisms of our trade agreement with the European Union to take action.”

The Minister in the Council of Ministers added: “This issue needs to be resolved within the next 48 hours.” When asked if that could include legal action, she said, “Absolutely.”

She later told BBC Radio 4’s Today program that the UK “will not back down in the face of these threats”.

But Pierre-Henri Dumont, the center-right Republican MP for Calais, said France would support “harder negotiations” to make Britain “aware that fishing rights are very important to us and that’s part of the deal”.

He told TODAY, “We can find revenge with the oysters. We can find revenge with the docking in France. We can find revenge with the electricity … This is on the table.”

.

[ad_2]