AN international agreement that allows foreign fishing vessels access to British waters has been scrapped by the UK Government.

The move has been backed by Holyrood but criticised as “unhelpful” by the Irish Government.

UK Environment Secretary Michael Gove said yesterday that withdrawing from the London Fisheries Convention would “take back control” of British waters.

Scrapping the 1964 agreement, signed prior to the UK joining the EU, means that British fishing boats will also be barred from fishing six to 12 nautical miles off the coasts of Ireland, the Netherlands, Germany, France and Belgium. The 12 to 200 mile fishing area will form a key part of the Brexit negotiations.

Gove said withdrawal from the London Fisheries Convention was an important first step in the UK’s return to “an independent coastal state”.

“This means for the first time in more than 50 years we will be able to decide who can access our waters,” he said.

“This is a historic first step towards building a new domestic fishing policy as we leave the European Union — one which leads to a more competitive, profitable and sustainable industry for the whole of the UK.”

Scottish ministers said they had been arguing for withdrawal for some time.

Fisheries Secretary Fergus Ewing said: “Our priority is to protect our fishing industry and allowing unrestricted access to our waters to remain through this convention clearly would not be doing that.

“The Scottish government will always stand up for our fishing industry, which too often has been let down by the UK government.”

The move has been welcomed by the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation.

Its chief executive, Bertie Armstrong, said: “Access to our rich fishing grounds will become a matter for us on withdrawal from the Common Fisheries Policy and leaving the London Convention as part of that sends a very strong additional message of commitment.”

However, Irish Agriculture, Food and Marine Minister Michael Creed said the withdrawal was both “unwelcome and unhelpful”.

“It is a part of Brexit and will be considered by the EU27 member states and the [Michel] Barnier team when the negotiations commence,” he said. “Brexit poses very serious challenges to the seafood sector and this announcement will form part of the negotiations.”

The issue was described as “a bit of a fuss over nothing” by Greenpeace UK’s head of oceans, Will McCallum, who said the withdrawal would not make much difference to the UK fishing industry as the UK would still have to abide by the UN convention of the law of the seas — which insists on cooperation between neighbouring countries.

Leaving the convention would also, like Brexit, be a lengthy process.

He said that in any case the UK Government had the means to decide how fishing quota is allocated following a Common Fisheries Policy reform in 2013, yet research had shown that nearly two thirds of that quota was held by just three companies.

“For years, successive UK governments have blamed Brussels for their own failure to support the small-scale, sustainable fishers who are the backbone of our fishing fleet,” McCallum said.