Number 10 didn’t make any effort to shoot the fox hunting story that’s doing the rounds at today’s lobby briefing. Responding to calls from a cross-party group of MPs for a partial lifting of the hunting ban to allow farmers to use a full pack of dogs to flush out foxes, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said this morning that ‘the Prime Minister has some sympathy with these concerns’ around ‘the impact is has on particular farming communities such as hill farmers’. He added that it was significant that these questions had been raised ‘by MPs from across the house’, saying:
‘Given the cross party nature of concerns that have been raised in this area, I think this is something which the House may wish to address.’
Though this is a cross-party concern, there is some political benefit in expressing sympathy for this contentious issue, because it would likely to appeal to those communities who might be naturally Conservative but who feel the party isn’t doing quite the job it used to on rural issues, or who have been alienated by high-speed rail.
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