Warning Labour is nailing its own coffin by banning trail hunting | Politics | News
Labour peer and KC Ann Mallalieu has issued a direct warning to her party over the new hunting ban (Image: Jonathan Buckmaster)
The Labour Government will drive the final nail into its own coffin if it bans trail hunting and devastates lives in rural communities, a senior member of the party has warned. Baroness Mallalieu, 80, who worked as a top barrister and is now president of the Countryside Alliance, warned Labour that pressing ahead with a ban so soon after pushing people to the brink of suicide with its inheritance tax plans could cost it the election and send voters to Reform UK.
She told the Express: “The reality is that the Labour party cannot win an overall [majority] without rural seats.”
Sir Keir Starmer’s Government has launched a consultation on how to deliver its manifesto pledge to ban trail hunting, which mimics traditional hunting by having hounds follow a pre-laid animal-based scent. The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has cited concerns that some people have used trail hunting “as a ‘smokescreen’ to facilitate illegal hunting with dogs’.
Baroness Mallalieu warned that a ban will do nothing to improve animal welfare, will hurt the rural economy and increase people’s isolation, and will result in “incalculable” damage to relations between the Government and countryside communities. The KC had hoped that “sense would prevail” and Labour would not press ahead with the policy.
“I think that there are many in the Labour party who very much regret the manifesto commitment,” she said, adding: “And it was done to appease a very vocal minority”.
She said the “craziness” of the “absolutely mad” situation is that a ban on trail hunting will “criminalise the people who obey the law”. The policy is driven, she added, by “hatred of people”.
The baroness, who lives on the edge of Exmoor national park, said: “The irony is, if only they knew the place I live is a deeply deprived area with a lot of people who would dearly love to have a Labour party representing them and doing things which would benefit them. Instead, it gets one damaging piece of legislation after another.”
Baroness Mallalieu combined farming with the law (Image: Jonathan Buckmaster)
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She campaigned against Labour’s plans to hike inheritance tax on agricultural land – which have now been watered down – and said she knows “people who would have killed themselves if the changes hadn’t been made”.
In a further warning for the Labour leadership, she said: “I’m afraid Labour has been driving people towards Reform.”
She is worried about the economic hit and job losses areas such as her own will experience if trail hunting is forbidden, adding that people are “desperate to find ways of saving the hounds”.
If the Government presses ahead with a ban, she said: “I’m afraid it will be the final nail in the coffin of a government which has chosen to do the wrong things on too many occasions already.”
A Reform UK spokesperson said: “Not content with attacking family farms, a trail hunt ban would just be a continuation of Labour’s unrelenting assault on rural Britain. This is an authoritarian move that has been dreamt up by clueless ministers without any evidential basis, and would be a hammer blow to jobs and livelihoods of rural communities.”
Shadow Environment Secretary Victoria Atkins accuses Labour of attacking the countryside (Image: Andy Stenning/Daily Express)
Shadow Environment Secretary Victoria Atkins said: “This city-dwelling socialist Government has come for our farms, family businesses, savings, homes, schools, even wood burners. They’re littering the countryside in solar panels whilst having done little on actual littering and fly tipping.
“And whilst we’re all worrying about rising fuel prices and taxes, they’re now coming after the traditional, lawful rural sports of trail hunting and shooting. They are re-arranging the deckchairs on their sinking ship of leftist political failure.
“Having secured painful u-turns from Labour already, we Conservatives will continue to fight for the countryside to protect it against this city-dwelling socialist Government.”
But a Defra spokesperson said: “This Government has made a clear commitment to ban trail hunting. We understand that this is a complex issue and we want to make sure all those with an interest have the opportunity to shape how we bring this forward.
“We recognise that hunting is important to those who enjoy this pursuit and we are listening carefully to concerns. We will ensure that any changes are proportionate and workable, so that we can protect wildlife while ensuring that responsible rural pursuits can continue.”
