Thread by @adampayne26

Exclusive: The shellfish industry claims that DEFRA admitted it was wrong about shellfish exports

"They now say that they believe on balance that the EU view, that the trade is not legal, is in fact correct," the bombshell email seen by PoliticsHome says politicshome.com/news/article/s…

"They [DEFRA] have now changed this position," the email sent to shellfish exporters says

"This is in complete contrast to everything they have told us so far"

Labour: "are they incompetent or do they simply not care?"

Lib Dems tell Eustice to resign

politicshome.com/news/article/s…

Eustice today said the EU stance was "indefensible" and last week said it was "legally wrong"

Yesterday he expressed frustration in a letter to the Commission

However, behind the scenes DEFRA officials say that the UK was wrong, the industry has claimed
politicshome.com/news/article/s…

A DEFRA spokesperson insisted that the government still believed the EU’s position on the UK’s shellfish exports was legally wrong, despite department officials allegedly telling the industry the opposite

Here’s the key paragraph from the industry email politicshome.com/news/article/s…

Update: SAGB this afternoon messaged members telling them that the DEFRA official they spoke to about shellfish exporters was a “non-legal” person and they’ve “now heard from DEFRA that they still believe that they have a good legal case and that the EU position is not correct”

Here’s the latest for you to unpick:

• DEFRA says the SAGB email was mistaken, it still believes its shellfish position is correct
• SAGB today said the DEFRA person it spoke to, which prompted the email, was “non-legal”
• DEFRA has reassured SAGB it has a “good legal case”