Westminster vetoes Scotland-Ireland Rockall fishing deal

Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton, the foreign secretary, has vetoed an agreement between Scotland and Ireland to allow Irish fishermen access to the rich fishing grounds around Rockall.

Ownership of the tiny granite islet 230 miles off the coast of the Outer Hebrides in the Atlantic is disputed by the UK and the Republic of Ireland 263 miles to the south.

Irish vessels, which traditionally fished the waters around the remote rock for haddock and squid, were barred from a 12-mile territorial zone around it after Brexit when the UK left the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy.

But although the Irish and Scottish governments — fisheries are a devolved power — spent two years agreeing an access deal it has been torpedoed by the Foreign Office