UK fishing town warns Boris over Brexit

MILFORD HAVEN: Welsh fishmonger Lenny Walters has a warning for Prime Minister Boris Johnson as he celebrates his one-month anniversary in office on Saturday.

If he goes back on his promise to deliver Brexit at any cost on October 31: “I think there will be riots.” The new British leader is trying to steer his splintered nation through one of its most perilous moments in generations as it hurtles out of the European Union.

The 46-year partnership has helped places like Milford Haven — a once-thriving Welsh fishing community that has turned into one of the poorest corners of Europe and a major recipient of aid from Brussels. Its waters are now filled mostly with non-British European trawlers who land their catch at the tiny town’s wharf. Locals see Johnson as their last great hope for reviving the local fishing industry. Their trust in his ability to do so is not terribly strong.

Johnson needs places such as Milford Haven behind him as he battles his own parliament and the 27 EU leaders through the denouement of a Brexit saga that kicked off when Britain voted by a 52-48 per cent margin to leave the EU three years ago. The region around Milford Haven backed Brexit 57 per cent to 43 and in the recent European elections anti-EU Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party won with 38 per cent. The Brexit Party has said that a no-deal Brexit is ”the best deal” and is poised to win support at any future election if Johnson strikes a compromise with Brussels.

Johnson’s past as mayor of London has many in this corner of Wales doubting his true commitment to the Brexit cause. Johnson himself has admitted that his decision to back Britain’s withdrawal from the European project was “agonisingly difficult” and had caused him “a huge amount of heartache”.