The British Crown Dependency of Guernsey is at the centre of a massive row with France over post-Brexit fishing rights for French fishermen.
France has threatened to retaliate by cutting off electricity supplies to the British bailiwick after the local government in Guernsey imposed restrictions on French trawlers operating in its waters.
Guernsey, part of the Channel Islands, is much closer to the French coast than it is to the UK mainland and for years prior to Brexit has been a popular fishing area for the French.
However, with the change of trading arrangements since the UK left the EU, a raft of new regulations to regulate trade have gone into force.
Guernsey gets its electricity from the French mainland via undersea cables but now the French are threatening to cut the power unless the local government retracts the fishing restrictions.
The island gets over 90 per cent of its electricity from France with the rest generated from local diesel generators.
The increasingly tense stand-off has forced talks between top British and French government officials as this has descended into a foreign affairs crisis.
Relations between Britain and France especially over fishing rights have hit rough waters since Brexit. UK fishermen have also claimed that the British government’s still-unresolved Brexit fishing quota arrangements with the EU is crippling their industry.
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