Councillor Marc Macrae attacks SNP on Brexit and fishing

Councillor Marc Macrae (Scottish Conservative - Fochabers Lhanbryde) has accused SNP Councillors of "betraying" Moray's coastal communities.

Cllr Macrae accused the SNP of "hijacking" a council meeting to talk about Brexit, while Richard Lochhead, SNP MSP for Moray, accused the Tories of not believing Brexit is important to the local area.

Speaking after the meeting, Mr Lochhead said: "It's utterly astonishing the leader of the Tory Group on Moray Council (Tim Eagle) says Brexit is not relevant to Moray Council business and he has no opinion on the matter.

"I appreciate most Tories councillors in Moray stood on the single issue of opposing the SNP but surely they must have a view on the biggest issue of the day facing the people of Moray?"

Mr Macrae, though, says Brexit chat had no relevance to the meeting. He said: "SNP councillors decided to use a council meeting to perform a piece of political theatre on the subject of Brexit which had no relevance whatsoever to what was being debated.

"What was telling was that in their pre-prepared statements not one of them mentioned the aspect of our EU membership that has most affected so many of our coastal communities, which is the disastrous Common Fisheries Policy which has decimated our fishing fleet."

Cllr Macrae, who has family connections to the fishing industry in Buckie, added: "I can remember when you could walk across Buckie harbour without getting your feet wet, such was the number of fishing vessels.

"Then we joined Europe and that all ended. The SNP used to stand up for our fishing communities and called for us to leave the EU.

"There is a bright future for fishing when the UK becomes an independent coastal state again, so long as the SNP don't get their way and take us back into the hated CFP."

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