A Parliament-based campaign group is set to ramp up pressure on the government to end illegal foxhunting for good – as ministers prepare for a public consultation on the issue.
Labour MP Neil Duncan-Jordan is to launch a private member’s Bill in the new year to close loopholes that allow the activity to continue, including banning trail-hunting.
“This is our window of opportunity to get the ban done before the election,” he said. “There’s no way Nigel Farage [Reform UK leader] will introduce a ban.”
In opposition, Labour promised to crack down on illegal hunting, and its last election manifesto pledged to ban trail-hunting.
The New Hunting Ban campaign group will next week publish a list of reforms it says would make the 2004 Hunting Act watertight, to coincide with the 21st anniversary of the Act being passed.
The law, which took effect in early 2005, banned hunting wild mammals with dogs in England and Wales.
Hunters say they follow a scent trail instead of foxes, but evidence from monitors, observers, drones and saboteurs claims to show widespread foxhunting.
Householders, animal sanctuaries, businesses and even funerals have been disturbed by hounds tearing through their land, and pets have been killed.
The Independent previously revealed how the owner of a pony-trekking company was forced to abandon her £70,000-a-year business because of the regular disruption. In some areas, people who oppose hunting say they are intimidated into silence.
Mr Duncan-Jordan told The Independent that when he last month went with the North London Hunt Saboteurs to monitor a hunt, he saw no sign of the hunters following a scent trail.
“The hounds were all over the place, including on the road, where they blocked traffic. And they were sent into bushes or undergrowth where no one could have laid a trail,” he said.
“Riders positioned themselves either side of a section of woodland to spot any fox that made a run for it. Why would they do that if following a trail?”
He said hunt supporters refused to reply when he greeted them with a “good morning”, instead staring at him and putting camera phones to his face to try to intimidate him.
Environment minister Angela Eagle has said a consultation will be held early next year.
In 2020 major landowners suspended trail-hunting after the leak of Zoom meetings in which hunt chiefs from across the UK discussed how to create “a smokescreen”.
Chief Superintendent Matt Longman, National Policing Lead on Hunting with Hounds, told a parliamentary briefing in October: “Taking cases to court is inherently difficult. The question is: have we got the tools to deliver what the public expects? At the moment, I believe trail hunting is being used as a smokescreen.”
The New Hunting Ban, which was launched in May and has had meetings in Parliament with the RSPCA, League Against Cruel Sports, head of the Wildlife Crime Unit, and has held its own consultations, is presenting its suggested reforms “as an example of gold-standard legislation”.
Mr Duncan-Jordan said: “This isn’t fringe politics – this is mainstream animal welfare.”
And he dismissed claims that opposition to hunting was a class jealousy issue, saying saboteurs he met were from a wide range of careers.
“You can enjoy riding across countryside and enjoy having dogs, but it doesn’t need to end in killing an innocent wild animal. I have no interest in stopping rituals or people putting on fancy clothes and riding out with friends.”
But that should not end in an animal being ripped to pieces, he said.
“I’m interested in making sure we can get a ban done properly before the election.”
His private member’s bill would also halt stag-hunting, which is carried out by hunters using exemptions in the law.
The Action Against Foxhunting (AAF) group, compiled police responses to more than 80 incidents in one winter hunting season, concluding that forces regularly fail to act on reports of illegal foxhunting and fail to bring charges even when they are handed overwhelming evidence.
A spokesperson for governing body the British Hound Sports Association said: “Nothing in Mr Duncan-Jordan’s comments describes unlawful behaviour. Hounds entering cover, riders keeping sight of them, and supporters filming interactions are all routine features of trail-hunting. Misunderstanding normal practice is not a basis for banning a legal activity.
“What is difficult to understand is why the MP for Poole did not respond to our invitation to National Trail Hunting Day — including a meet only 20 miles from his constituency — yet chose instead to make a nearly-300-mile round trip to accompany saboteurs in Northamptonshire. His constituents might reasonably ask how that served their interests.
“Scrutiny of trail-hunting is entirely legitimate, and we welcome it. But scrutiny must be based on evidence, not assumption. Mr Duncan-Jordan has not presented anything that justifies calling for a ban on an activity that is lawful, regulated and conducted under clear rules.”