Peers' poll 'shows more support for hunt ban'
Animal welfare campaigners claims they have more evidence a repeal of the hunting ban would fail if the Prime Minister pushes ahead with a debate in Parliament.
After claiming last year they had the backing of a majority of MPs, the League Against Cruel Sports now says opinion is shifting in the House of Lords.
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League Against Cruel Sports leader Douglas Batchelor claims support is growing for the hunting ban
The League commissioned a ComRes poll of peers which found support for hunting had dipped below 50 per cent for the first time in history.
But pro-hunting groups dismissed the League's claims and said that support for repeal was consistent in the House of Lords and building among MPs in the Commons.
The ComRes poll found 49 per cent of members of the House of Lords would vote in favour of a repeal of the Hunting Act, while 43 per cent said they would vote against.
The League hailed those poll results as a "massive shift" in peers' views.
"In March 2001, a Bill to ban hunting failed by 317 votes to 68 in the House of Lords, and it took another three years to get the ban through," said chief executive Douglas Batchelor.
"These figures show how the landscape has changed – the balance of opinion in the Lords has shifted massively against hunting."
Mr Batchelor did not mention that strong opposition against the ban on hunting in the House of Lords led the Blair Government to force the law through by controversially using the Parliament Act, which allowed the Commons to overrule the Lords, back in 2005.
During a visit to Wiltshire last year, Prime Minister David Cameron told the Daily Press he was committed to a free vote on hunting "in the coming months".
But while serious lobbying is going on from both sides, senior figures among pro-hunting MPs have cautioned that a vote on repeal may have to wait.
The League said their latest estimates of support among MPs show a clear majority in favour of the hunt ban.
But a spokeswoman for the Countryside Alliance dismissed the League's poll as irrelevant.
She said "more and more" people in Parliament and the general public were seeing the Hunting Act as an "unworkable" piece of legislation.
3 Comments
by WildMike, Surrey
Saturday, April 09 2011, 12:55PM
“Over 200 convictions under The Hunting Act plus more under other wildlife legislation! Prosecutions and convictions doubling year on year despite the low priority given by deferential Police Chiefs. The right-minded majority have the will and The Hunting Act provides the way!”
by mhayworth, UK
Friday, April 08 2011, 3:45PM
“" But a spokeswoman for the Countryside Alliance dismissed the League's poll as irrelevant. She said "more and more" people in Parliament and the general public were seeing the Hunting Act as an "unworkable" piece of legislation."
So - if we use the infantile logic of the Countryside Alliance, we can also say that any law that is difficult to police, and even harder to make convictions stick, should be repealed. Lets see now, shall we start with rape or murder?
These people really are the last of the Neanderthals. Is it any wonder they can't stop killing animals for sport?”
by JKendall, Yorkshire
Friday, April 08 2011, 3:10PM
“Good to see that the House of Lords is catching up with the vast majority of the electorate. Our wildlife has the right to live free from persecution.”