UK Foreign Secretary Faces Fine for Fishing ‘Illegally’ With JD Vance

(Suzanne Plunkett/Pool via AP)

UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy reported himself to the Environment Agency Wednesday after admitting he broke fishing laws while visiting Vice President JD Vance.

The breach took place last week at Chevening House, Lammy’s official “grace-and-favour” country residence, a government-owned home given free to officials as part of their job, where the pair held talks before posing for photos and heading to the estate’s private lake.

Lammy, it emerged, did not have the rod license required for freshwater fishing in England, a legal slip that can carry a fine of up to £2,500 and, in some cases, land the offender a criminal record.

Confirming the mistake, a Foreign Office spokesperson said: “The foreign secretary has written to the Environment Agency over an administrative oversight that meant the appropriate licenses had not been acquired for fishing on a private lake as part of a diplomatic engagement at Chevening House last week.”

They added that Lammy bought the license immediately after realizing the error and formally notified the agency.

It is understood the Chevening trip marked Lammy’s first time fishing on the estate, and all catches were returned to the water. Lammy himself admitted his haul was zero – unlike Vance who caught several.

The vice president joked to reporters: “Unfortunately, the one strain on the special relationship is that all of my kids caught fish, but the foreign secretary did not.”

Vance is spending the remainder of his UK holiday in the Cotswolds in southwest England.