Dear oh dear. Foreign Secretary David Lammy met with US Vice President JD Vance at the weekend to discuss the wars in Gaza and Ukraine over a spot of fishing. Lammy’s attempts at chumminess haven’t gone all that well however. Vance told Fox News that Washington is ‘done funding’ Kyiv, the Foreign Secretary failed to catch a single fish at his retreat in Kent and now Lammy has had to refer himself to the environment watchdog after he was found not to have a valid rod licence. Talk about a reverse Midas touch, eh?
Anglers in England and Wales aged 13 or over are required to have a rod licence to fish for freshwater species, like carp, according to the Environment Agency. Those who go fishing without a valid licence could end up being fined as much as £2,500. Yikes! For Lammy’s part, a Foreign Office spokesperson said that when he became aware of his error, he bought a licence and then wrote to the Environment Agency to let them know about the slip-up. They added:
The Foreign Secretary has written to the Environment Agency over an administrative oversight that meant the appropriate licences had not been acquired for fishing on a private lake as part of a diplomatic engagement at Chevening House last week.
It wasn’t all bad news for Lammy: Vance described the Foreign Secretary during his trip as a ‘good friend’ and a ‘very, very gracious host’. He did add, however, that: ‘Unfortunately, the one strain on the special relationship is that all of my kids caught fish, but the foreign secretary did not.’ Burn…
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