Before Labour banned fox hunting (and stag hunting and hare coursing) it was legal for a fox to be chased across the countryside and ripped apart by a pack of dogs. It was legal to all but exhaust the fox before it suffered a horrendous death and all this – not for conservation – but for fun – for sport – for the pleasure, excitement and enjoyment of a minority.
I watched the fox hunting protest as a young researcher in Parliament on the day Labour was passing the Hunting Bill to ban fox hunting. My most vivid memory from that day was watching a man in wellies and a barbour jacket throw a champagne bottle at police lines. They wanted to carry on hunting with dogs. Labour wanted to ban hunting and had won an election with a manifesto pledge to ban fox hunting. I backed the ban then and I back the ban now.
At this election voters in SW Devon have a choice:
- Gary Streeter, my Tory opponent, supports repeal of the ban on fox hunting and a return of bloodsports. So do the Conservatives at large. A vote for the Conservatives is a vote for fox hunting.
- I oppose fox hunting and would work to protect the ban. A vote for Labour is a vote to back the ban on fox hunting.
Do you support the ban on fox hunting? If you do, vote for it on Thursday 6 May. The Conservatives would bring back fox hunting. Labour would protect the ban we introduced. Fox hunting – is that the change for the better you want for Britain? You decide and in 7 days you will.
Read my views here as to why I am supporting the ban.
WATCH: Hilary Benn, Labour’s Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, talk about the ban’s anniversary on Boxing Day earlier this year here:
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Hi I am very against the hunting act. As you know it classes flushing out of cover as exempt hunting but the exemption is conditional on the flushed out animal being shot.
I use my dogs to flush deer out of cover as an alternative to shooting them. I think it is very wrong that i should have to shoot the deer in order to comply with the law.