French fishermen plan to ruin Christmas for millions of Britons with blockade

French trawlermen are drawing up plans to ruin Christmas for millions of Britons by blockading Calais and other key ports in response to the resolution of the post-Brexit dispute over fishing licences.

Industry sources told the Telegraph on Sunday that they will attempt to snare up cross-Channel trade over the festival period because many of their colleagues were refused permits to operate in Britain’s waters.

“We have made it clear: protests are planned, following on from the blockade of Breton and Norman ports that took place on November 26,” said Oliver Lepretre, head of the Hauts-de-France regional fisheries committee.

“Actions will target the import of British products. French fishermen are more than ever united against adversity and don’t intend to take it lying down faced with so much bad faith.”

The threats came after Britain and Jersey agreed to licence 23 more French vessels to trawl their waters in a conclusion to the long-running dispute over post-Brexit permits.

A further seven boats could also be granted access on Monday as EU and UK experts draw a close to a month-long period of intensive negotiations.

But French trawlermen were expecting more than 100 permits to be issued in the final stretch of the wrangling.

Industry sources said they had been “betrayed” by the UK and “abandoned by the European Commission”.

They accused Brussels of capitulating in the negotiations, “despite its promise to get tougher”. The French government has also seemingly dropped its threat to pursue legal action through the EU against Britain.

In a bid to reopen the talks, the French fishing industry will repeat its campaign to "disturb British interests" by hitting goods being shipped between Calais and Dover.

Blockade will focus on Christmas shipments

Details of the planned action, which are still under discussion amongst union bosses, are yet to be finalised, but an industry source told the Telegraph that the blockades will likely take place before December 23, with a deliberate focus on Christmas shipments.

Last month, dozens of French fishermen targeted Calais, the Channel Tunnel and smaller ports of Saint-Malo and Ouistreham, preventing ferries and lorry drivers from entering.

Their demonstration came after Paris dropped its own plans to bring cross-Channel trade to a standstill by implementing tougher checks on British hauliers arriving in France, after failing to win EU support for the action.

Asked whether their latest protest will cause more disruption, an organiser said: "Yes, without a doubt!"

In response to the fallout, Annick Girardin, France's maritime minister, has announced she will conduct a review of all of the failed licence applications.

Ahead of a meeting with EU counterparts in Brussels, she said: "On the subject of fishing licences with the UK, I will discuss with my colleague Clement Beaune all possible legal arrangements for each licence requested and not granted.

"We will not leave any fishermen without a solution."

Paris has already raised the possibility of offering boats without access to British waters financial compensation, and still could call on the Commission to trigger legal action against the Government if more licences aren't granted.

British sources said they had gone to "great lengths" to help French vessels prove they had the right to fish in UK waters after Brexit, including purchasing commercial positioning data.

The process of issuing permits, which required EU boats to prove they had fished in Britain's coastal waters for just four days between 2012 and 2016, had been based on "evidence rather than deadlines", they added.

So far, the UK has granted almost 1,800 licences to European fishing vessels to trawl its waters, including more than 800 French vessels, under the Brexit trade deal.