owning Street has denied that Boris Johnson and French President Emmanuel Macron have reached an agreement to de-escalate their increasingly bitter strife over post-Brexit fishing rights.
Following a meeting between the two leaders in connection with the G20 summit in Rome, French officials were reported to have said they had agreed to try to resolve their disagreements.
But in a briefing for British journalists, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman made it clear that Britain did not acknowledge the allegations that there had been an agreement.
“I have seen the same reporting,” the spokesman said.
“It will be up to the French to decide whether to step down from the threats they have made in recent days about breaches of the Brexit (trade) agreement,” the spokesman said.
French officials have warned they will block British fishing boats from some ports and tighten customs controls on lorries entering the country with British goods from Tuesday, unless more licenses are given to their small boats to fish in British.
The UK has said the threats represent a breach of the post-Brexit Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) concluded between the UK and the EU, warning that it could trigger the dispute mechanism under the terms of the agreement.
Johnson’s spokesman said: “The Prime Minister reiterated his deep concern at the rhetoric emanating from the French Government in recent days, including the French Prime Minister’s proposal that Britain be punished for leaving the EU.
“He expressed the hope that the French government would de-escalate this rhetoric and withdraw their threats.”
There is frustration on the British side that the dispute between the two sides has at times overshadowed the build-up to crucial international climate change at the Cop26 summit, which begins in Glasgow on Monday.
The series follows claims from the French that dozens of French boats have received their applications to fish in British and Channel Islands waters, claims that the British have strongly disputed.
In the run-up to the meeting between the two leaders, there were few signs of compromise on either side.
France’s European Minister Clement Beaune tweeted that Paris “is ready to implement proportionate and reversible measures from 2 November, which we have repeatedly announced since April last year”.
He insisted that the measures were “fully compliant” with the TCA.
His warning came after Britain’s Brexit minister Lord Frost said the whole EU would be in breach of the agreement if France carried out its threats.
The conservative peer said in a series of tweets Saturday that Britain was “actively considering” triggering lawsuits included in the TCA if there was no solution to the problem.
“These threats, if implemented on November 2, would bring the EU into breach of its obligations under our trade agreement,” he tweeted.
The government was particularly angry at a letter from French Prime Minister Jean Castex to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, in which he said Britain should be shown “it causes more harm to leave the EU than to stay in”.
Johnson raised the letter at a meeting with Mrs von der Leyen in the margins of the G20 on Saturday.
Johnson said he was “surprised” by the letter.
Speaking at a press conference after the G20 summit, he said: “I must say I was amazed to read a letter from the French Prime Minister who explicitly called for Britain to be punished for leaving the EU.
“I just have to say to everyone that I do not believe it is compatible with either the spirit or the letter of the withdrawal agreement or the trade and cooperation agreement.”
The dispute over access to fishing escalated this week after French authorities detained a Scottish-registered scallop deepening and accused it of fishing without a license.
The captain of the Cornelis Gert Jan vessel, understood as an Irish citizen, has been asked to appear in court in August next year.
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