Dutch fishermen and farmers are among those who will feel the effects of the hard Brexit the most it emerged at a public hearing in parliament in The Hague on Wednesday.

Fishermen fear they will lose 60% of their production if Teresa May’s ‘hard’ approach to Brexit is combined with the closure of UK waters to the Dutch fishing fleet, the Financieele Dagblad reported on Thursday.

Gerard van Balsfoort, chairman of the ocean fishing shipowners association said the Netherlands must maintain the link between access to UK fishing grounds for the Dutch fleet and accessibility to the European market for British fishermen.

Farm products

The Dutch agricultural sector says sterling will be 20% cheaper than the euro as a result of Brexit, making Dutch farm products more expensive in Britain.

But agricultural sector lobby group LTO director Mark Talon sees a greater danger in the fact that the UK will no longer have any say in EU agricultural policy, shifting the balance of power to France, Germany and Eastern Europe.

This weakens the position of those countries which prefer to earn their money on the market rather than though subsidies, he said.