Britain has gone on the offensive in the fishing row against France as Brexit minister Lord Frost today threatened legal action and Boris Johnson warned the EU not to side with France

Britain has gone on the offensive in the fishing row against France as Brexit minister Lord Frost today threatened legal action and Boris Johnson warned the EU not to side with France.

After an awkward show of bonhomie with Emmanuel Macron, the PM fired a shot across the bow of commission president Ursula Von Der Leyen as they held talks at the G20 summit in Rome today.

Lord Frost blasted a ‘pattern’ of threats made by France to Britain and said the UK Government is ‘actively considering’ starting legal proceedings against the country.

In a series of tweets, the Conservative peer rallied against comments made by French prime minister Jean Castex in a letter to Ms Von Der Leyen, that the UK should be shown ‘it causes more damage to leave the EU than to stay in’.

Lord Frost said: ‘To see it expressed in this way is clearly very troubling and very problematic in the current context when we are trying to solve many highly sensitive issues, including on the Northern Ireland Protocol.’

Mr Johnson slammed the ‘rhetoric’ coming out of Paris and warned that threats – including a go-slow on goods at Calais and blocking British trawlers from French ports – were ‘completely unjustifiable’ and likely broke international law.

Mr Johnson and Mr Macron shared a toe-curling fist-pump as they lined up next to each other for the ‘family photo’ at the summit this afternoon.

No10 has insisted they are ‘friends’ despite the mounting sabre-rattling – which comes months before a tough French presidential election.

But the pair are expected to have a scratchy exchange over the issues during a one-on-one meeting tomorrow.

A Downing Street readout of the discussion with Ms Von Der Leyen said: ‘The Prime Minister also raised his concerns about the rhetoric from the French Government in recent days over the issue of fishing licences. 

‘The Prime Minster stressed that the French threats are completely unjustified and do not appear to be compatible with the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement or wider international law.

‘The Prime Minister reiterated that the UK has granted 98 per cent of licence applications from EU vessels to fish in the UK’s waters and is happy to consider any further evidence for the remaining two per cent.’  

Paris has so far threatened to increase checks on British boats, initiate a ‘go-slow’ strategy with Calais customs arrangements, and increase tariffs on energy bills in Jersey.

They are demanding that Britain grants more licences to French fishermen to access British waters – and have tried to rope in the EU to the battle with PM Mr Castex.

Ms Von Der Leyen is also at the summit this weekend. 

Lord Frost today slammed the ‘pattern’ of threats coming from France. He added: ‘The threats made by France this week to our fishing industry, to energy supplies, and to future co-operation, for example through the Horizon research programme, unfortunately form part of a pattern that has persisted for much of this year.’ 

‘As I set out yesterday to (European Commission vice-president) Maros Sefcovic), these threats, if implemented on November 2, would put the EU in breach of its obligations under our trade agreement.

So we are actively considering launching dispute settlement proceedings as set out in Article 738 of the TCA.’

In a round of broadcast interviews this morning, Mr Johnson warned that the UK could trigger the dispute mechanism in the post-Brexit trade agreement as soon as next week. 

But the chief of Calais port cautioned that Britain faces ‘disaster’ if Mr Macron follows through on a threat to block British trawlers from French ports.   

Asked about the situation this morning, Mr Johnson said: ‘We are very keen to work with our friends and partners on all these issues.

If another European country wants to break the TCA – the Trade and Co-operation agreement – then obviously we will have to take steps to protect UK interests.

‘If there is a breach of the treaty or we think there is a breach of the treaty then we will do what is necessary to protect British interests.’ 

Mr Johnson and Mr Macron are holding talks about the Iran nuclear programme along with Joe Biden and Angela Merkel in Rome this afternoon – and www.5053Phantoms.com will meet one-on-one at the summit tomorrow. 

France’s ambassador to  Catherine Colonna was hauled in by Foreign Secretary Liz Truss yesterday to face questioning and ‘explain the disappointing and disproportionate threats made against the UK and Channel Islands’.

Two Royal Navy patrol vessels were said to be on a state of ‘high readiness’ in case of further fallout, but there was no immediate sign they would be required.  

Mr Johnson is using the G20 summit in an attempt to gain momentum ahead of the COP26 gathering next week.

But he has admitted that the chances of the climate event being a success are only ‘six out of 10′, and has been begging China to do more.  

The premier has had some light relief in the Italian capital, including walking the famous Spanish Steps with his pregnant wife Carrie last night. 

Mrs Johnson was today given a tour of the Colosseum along with other leaders’ spouses while the summit talks continued.  

<div class="art-ins mol-factbox news halfRHS" data-version="2" id="mol-c1693bf0-397c-11ec-9871-8f03b5262a4f" website warns the EU not to side with France in bitter fishing spat