On 2 January, the Conservative party tweeted, “We have taken back control of our laws and banned pulse fishing in British waters to help safeguard our marine environment”, next to an infographic which said, “now possible as we control our own laws.”

Facts

Pulse trawling, which involves the use of an electric current to force fish off the seabed making them easier to catch, was indeed banned in UK waters on 1 January 2021.

However, France and Belgium - both EU member states - had already outlawed the practice of pulse fishing in their territorial waters in 2019. The UK could have done the same when it was still a member of the EU.

An EU-wide ban was also passed into law in June 2019 and was due to come into full effect on 1 July 2021.

Verdict

The Conservative party claim that the ban on pulse fishing was made possible by Brexit was a  lie which misled the British public about the benefits of Brexit.