What Have Politicians Got to do with the Price of Fish?

Ian Perkes – who appeared in Byline TV’s 2024 Betrayed documentary – updates its co-producer George Llewelyn on life after leaving the EU as a fish exporter

When Ian Perkes, a Brixham fish exporter on England’s south coast, first spoke openly about the toll Brexit had taken on his business, it had only been three weeks since the UK had officially left the European Union on 31 January 2020.

During those 21 days, he hadn’t been able to send a single shipment of fish to Europe.

He was frustrated with the Conservative Government for not providing exporters with the correct commodity codes, a key part of the paperwork required to import products into Europe. When it did finally provide him with what it said were the correct codes, French authorities insisted that they were not correct and rejected the entire consignment.

It was a tough pill to swallow for a man who, having himself voted for Brexit, had told America’s PBS NewsHour two years before that “there is never going to be any fish left on the dock” and that “every fish here for the last 30 years is sold, nothing is ever left”.

After Brexit, Perkes’ fish weren’t left on the dock, but instead were rejected in France where they were destroyed at his own expense.

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