The minister in charge of the ban on hunting yesterday gave the clearest indication yet that David Cameron’s Government would revisit the issue in parliament as tens of thousands of hunt supporters gathered for the traditional Boxing Day meets.

Jim Paice, who as Defra minister is responsible for countryside legislation, told hunt supporters gathering at meets in market town centres across the region that he supported them and wanted to see the law repealed.

The coalition Government has so far failed to stick to its early pledge to re-open the debate in the Commons. David Cameron and Nick Clegg’s coalition agreement of May 2010 promised a vote among MPs on whether a full-blown debate and vote should be had on repeal.

But anti-hunt organisations soon claimed they had successfully won over enough MPs – particularly new urban Tory MPs – and a vote has never materialised.

Visiting a hunt kennels on the biggest day of the hunting calendar, Mr Paice said: “The current law simply doesn’t work. I personally am in favour of hunting with dogs – and the Coalition Agreement clearly states that we will have a free vote on whether to repeal the Act when there is time in the parliamentary calendar to do so.”

Anti-hunt campaigners responded by publishing a new YouGov poll which revealed that only six per cent of the population thought repealing the hunt ban was the biggest animal welfare priority.

With stirring speeches on horseback made in town centre market places from Somerset to Wiltshire and Dorset to Gloucestershire yesterday, hunt masters maintained they were still fighting for repeal of the ban.

At Lacock hunt master, and local councillor, Jonathan Seed welcomed the thousands who turned out to the famously picturesque Wiltshire village for the last time, as he is stepping down as master of the Avon Vale Hunt.

It was a scene repeated in the centre of Thornbury, Andoversford and Longhope in Gloucestershire, Chepstow and in Somerset at Castle Cary, Priddy, Crewkerne and Ilminster. In Herefordshire, the centre of Kington, Hereford and Bromyard all came to a standstill apart from the hounds and the horses, while in Dorset there were meets at the centre of Beaminster and Dorchester.

The turnout, which was put nationally by the Countryside Alliance at a quarter of a million, was welcomed by outgoing Countryside Alliance chief executive Alice Barnard. She said Mr Paice’s visit to a hunt kennels showed a ‘strong’ and public support for hunts from the Government.

“The visit of the hunting minister to a hunt kennels is a very welcome and strong show of support from this Government,” she said. “The Countryside Alliance is delighted to be in such a strong position to push for the repeal of the expensive and failed Hunting Act.”

Despite few, if any, successful prosecutions of organised hunts for illegal hunting, and a reluctance among police chiefs to investigate evidence gathered by anti-hunt monitors, the League Against Cruel Sports maintained the hunt ban was still effective.

It claimed last month that evidence of artificial fox earths being maintained on hunt-controlled land pointed to continued flouting of the hunt ban, and said few people wanted to see the issue revisited in parliament.

The league commissioned a poll from YouGov which asked the public to rank a number of animal welfare issues, including improving farm animals’ welfare or taking action on dangerous dogs, in order of importance.

Just six per cent said they thought repealing the hunt ban was the most important, and almost half ranked it as the least important.

New league chief executive Joe Duckworth said it showed that the wider public – despite the tens of thousands who turned out yesterday in the West – did not want repeal of the ban.

“It comes as no surprise that the public has shown there is no appetite to waste parliamentary time on voting to repeal the Hunting Act,” he said.

“The figures speak for themselves."