Boris Johnson refuses to rule out a trade war with the EU as dispute grows over British seafood ban

Boris Johnson refused last night to rule out a trade war with Brussels if he did not back down from the growing dispute over British seafood.

The European Commission faced a pincer movement as politicians on both sides of the Canal criticized its ban on fresh UK exports.

Brussels has told British fishermen that they are indefinitely banned from selling live mussels, oysters, clams and cockles to EU member states.

Shellfish can be transported to the mainland only if they have been treated in purification plants.

Boris Johnson (pictured) refused last night to rule out a trade war with Brussels if he didn’t back down from the growing dispute over British seafood.

The Secretary of the Environment, George Eustice, yesterday denounced the “indefensible” ban, which he said affected the continent’s restaurants, as well as British fishermen, who are already suffering the closure of the hospitality trade in the United Kingdom.

He said the commission changed its position last week, and that before that “they had been clear that this was an exchange that could continue.”

Eustice said the ban was “ quite unexpected and really indefensible ”, telling BBC Radio 4’s Today show: “ The truth is that there is no legal barrier for this trade to continue, both for animal health reasons and for public health reasons; provision within existing EU regulations to allow such trade to continue from the UK.

“We are only asking the EU to comply with its existing regulations and not seek to change them.” Downing Street yesterday left open the possibility that the government will retaliate if the ban is not lifted.

Brussels has told British fishermen that they are indefinitely prohibited from selling live mussels, oysters, clams and cockles to EU member states (file image)

The prime minister’s spokesman refused to rule out blocking the import of some goods from the continent in a tit-for-tat response.

Yesterday, on impulse, the chairman of the European Parliament’s fisheries committee declared that he was Britain’s “best ally” on the issue.

French MEP Pierre Karleskind said he was not satisfied with the response he had received from the commission on the ban.

“The fact is, UK waters didn’t get dirty on December 31 at midnight, so this really doesn’t make any sense,” he told the Today show.

The European Commission faced a pincer movement as politicians on both sides of the Canal criticized its ban on fresh UK exports. In the photo: the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen

Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove last night compared tensions with the EU in recent weeks to the start of a flight. He told the European Union committee of Lords: ‘We all know that when a plane takes off, that’s the point where you sometimes get that highest level of turbulence.

But then finally you hit a cruising altitude and the crew tells you to take off your seatbelt and enjoy a gin and tonic and some peanuts.

“We are not in the gin and tonic and peanut stage yet, but I’m sure we will be.”

Chief Brexit negotiator Lord Frost said the EU was still adjusting to “the existence of a genuinely independent actor in its neighborhood.”

“ I think it’s been more than bumpy, to be honest, in the last six weeks. I think it has been troublesome. I hope we get through this, ” he told the Lords committee. “It will probably require a different spirit from the EU, but I am sure we will see that and see that some of this will diminish as we move forward.”