As the Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, has learned in the last few days, anglers contribute towards conservation and the environment in a way no other users of the countryside do. In 2024, over 900,000 people in England bought a rod licence which is required by law for anyone fishing in fresh water. These licences raised over £22.5 million for the Environment Agency, the vast majority of which goes into maintaining a healthy environment. For most of us the law is clear: if you fish without a licence, you will be prosecuted, in fact the Environment Agency likes to boast that it will “always” prosecute. 

That is unless the offenders are the Foreign Secretary and the Vice President of the United States, JD Vance, who were photographed fishing for carp at the Foreign Secretary’s grace and favour residence Chevening House in Kent last week. Mr Vance was able to boast that his children all caught fish whist David Lammy did not, but when the question of licences were raised the Environment Agency swiftly created a new category of retrospective licences to cover Mr Lammy’s embarrassment. 

It would be churlish to suggest that the full force of the law should be used to pursue the matter further. After all, it is nothing but a good thing that the Foreign Secretary took the Vice President and his family fishing, and the hiccup over licences will have revealed to an urban MP how much the angling community supports nature in a way that no other users of waterways or the countryside - whether wild swimmers, canoeists or ramblers - contribute.

Broadly, the rod licence is a good thing and it makes an indelible connection between fishing and conservation but, there is a question whether a criminal conviction is the right penalty for what could, as in the case of the Foreign Secretary, be the result of oversight or ignorance. 

The retrospective rod licence row is not, however, the only entry of fishing into the political world this week. The other story involves the Labour-run North East Derbyshire District Council which has implemented a de facto ban on angling at the Wingerworth Lido, near Chesterfield. The lake has been a hub for local anglers for decades, but the council has refused to renew a five-year licence and claimed that the ban was "a vital step in promoting the area as a biodiversity hub - a safe space for wildlife to thrive". 

This always sounded distinctly fishy and when accompanied by claims that the council had “received a number of complaints” about anglers the whole story really started to smell. It is increasingly obvious that the council’s refusal to renew a licence for fishing is a politically motivated attack on the activity of fishing and that its feeble attempts to justify a ban on the basis that local people were complaining about anglers, or that this was some plan to restore biodiversity, are simply nonsense. Not only do anglers contribute to the environment through the rod licence but they conserve lakes and rivers whilst also acting as canaries in the coal mine as far as water pollution is concerned.

David Lammy therefore comes out of a week of silly season fishing stories far better than than North East Derbyshire District Council, despite his oversight and failure to catch a fish. Next year I am sure he will remember to buy a rod licence and with a bit of coaching from our fishing guru, Charles Jardine, he can put the Americans in their place. Meanwhile, a local angler has created a petition to reinstate fishing at the Wingerworth Lido which you may want to support.