Scottish fishing chiefs are seeking an early meeting with the new UK fisheries minister, George Eustice, following his appointment to replace Richard Benyon.
Mr Eustice, Tory MP for Camorne and Redruth since 2010, was given his new role in Prime Minister David Cameron’s cabinet reshuffle on Monday.
He is the son of Cornwall fruit farmers and worked in the family business for nine years before entering politics.
His debut as an election hopeful came in the 1999 European Parliament elections, when he stood as a UK Independence Party candidate.
Key roles in his political career include spells as director for a campaign against the UK’s adoption of the euro currency and head of press under Tory leader Michael Howard during the 2005 general election.
He was press secretary for the current PM from June 2005 until the end of 2008, being part of Mr Cameron’s campaign team during the Tory party leadership contest.
Mr Eustice has been quoted as saying that he wants to loosen Brussels’ stranglehold on the UK fishing industry.
Scottish Fishermen’s Federation (SFF) chief executive Bertie Armstrong said: “We look forward to meeting the new UK fisheries minister. . . immediately and to work closely with him as the vitally important negotiating season for fishing opportunity and management for 2014 and beyond gets under way.”
Mr Armstrong said Mr Benyon had been an “impressive” fisheries minister. He added: “Under his watch we saw the UK corner fought well, including such solid practical outcomes as effort control being frozen and the entirely justified imposition of sanctions on the Faroes for their disregard of an international agreement (for herring).”
The SFF leader is also looking forward to discussing fishing issues with new Scottish Secretary Alistair Carmichael, MP for Orkney and Shetland, who replaced Michael Moore in Monday’s reshuffle.
“Michael Moore has fishing in his constituency and was a consistently good friend to the Scottish fishing industry,” said Mr Armstrong.
He added: “Whenever cabinet level support was appropriate, he was invariably right there with us. We thank him for all his efforts on our behalf and we will be sad to see him go.
“We welcome Alistair Carmichael . . . who also has a good knowledge of the fishing industry and with whom we already have a working relationship.”