David Lammy has escaped a fine from the Environment Agency (EA) after he fished alongside JD Vance without a licence.

The Foreign Secretary and the US vice-president went fishing illegally at Chevening, Kent, this month as part of Mr Vance’s visit to the UK.

It soon emerged they had done so without a Rod Licence and that Mr Lammy had purchased one only retroactively.

The website for the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs outlines that all Rod Licences must be purchased before the activity takes place.

But the EA confirmed on Friday that Mr Lammy would not face a fine of up to £2,500 and that he had been let off with a warning letter – despite a spokesman for the quango previously insisting “we always prosecute”.

An EA spokesman said: “Everyone who goes fishing needs a licence to help improve our rivers, lakes and the sport anglers love.

“As Mr Lammy has confirmed, we have issued a warning letter for fishing without a licence, in line with our Enforcement and Sanctions policy.”

Decision risks row with anglers

The move is likely to prompt a row over “two-tier justice” after Owen Stockting, from Southampton, Hampshire, was prosecuted by the EA after being caught fishing without a licence in September 2023.

Mr Stockting, 27, was fined £83 and made to pay costs of £85 and a victim surcharge of £33 at Swindon Magistrates Court in March the following year.

Responding to Mr Lammy’s unlicensed fishing trip, Mr Stockting had told The Telegraph that “everyone” should be prosecuted for their wrongdoings regardless of whether they held a position of power.

Harry Fernihough, from Tresco Place in Falmouth, pleaded guilty to fishing without a licence at Wheal Gray in Marazion last year.

Mr Fernihough was fined £130 and made to pay costs of £67 and a victim surcharge of £52 at Swindon Magistrates Court last December.

Benjamin Pessl, a fisheries environment officer at the EA, said in response: “Anyone who thinks ‘I don’t need to buy a Rod Licence, no one’s going to check’ is in the wrong. We do check, regularly, and we prosecute, always.”

Mr Pessl went on to say that a licence was not expensive and there was “no excuse for not having one”.