France to use ‘language of force’ in post-Brexit fishing rights row

Comments from French EU affairs minister come as British trawler is detained in France amid dispute

France's EU affairs minister, Clement Beaune, has said Paris will now use the language of force" in an escalation of a row over post-Brexit fishing rights, as French maritime police seized a British trawler found in its territorial waters without a licence.

One vessel had been stopped off Le Havre in the early hours of Thursday morning, after which it was rerouted to the quay and handed over to the judicial authority", while a second was given a verbal warning.