Will Sir Keir Starmer go further on the Hunting Act than Tony Blair did? While the passing of the legislation in 2004 marked a significant moment in the history of wildlife protection, it was flawed. This wasn’t immediately realised: at the time, many believed that the move by the Labour government would finally bring an end to fox hunting in the British countryside.
But Prime Minister Blair was far from enthusiastic about banning fox hunting, thanks to his fears the issue would generate a growing rift between the Labour party and rural voters. In recent months Lord Mandelson has indicated that Blair felt under pressure to act on this issue, partly due to a significant donation to the Labour Party in 1997 from a leading animal rights campaigner.
Blair’s less than enthusiastic support for the Hunting Act has resulted in the legislation having more holes than a Swiss cheese. Since the very first day of its implementation, it has been the target of a concerted attack by pro hunt organisations and Tory politicians with the aim of weakening, undermining or even repealing the legislation. Hunts across the country have openly defied the Act by developing methods to circumvent it. They have used false alibis or illicit exploitation of its exemptions, with little fear of prosecution.
The most common — and effective — way fox hunts have avoided prosecution under the Hunting Act is by trail hunting. These follow a scent trail using fox urine, often laid down in areas where the animals are likely to be. Crucially, the hunt workers laying the trail do not inform those controlling the pack of fox hounds where the scent has been laid, so if the hounds do pick up a live scent and then chase down and kill a fox, they claim they did not know it was in the area. Terrier men accompany these trail hunts. These contractors on quad bikes send their dogs underground to find a fox if it escapes the hounds. Moreover, the men also illegally fill in badger setts along the trail hunt route to prevent foxes going to ground.
The sinister reality of trail hunting was exposed in the media in November 2020, when figures within the Master of Fox Hounds Association and the Countryside Alliance were caught on camera admitting that ‘trail’ hunting is a ‘smokescreen’ for the chasing and killing of foxes. In the years that have followed, hunt saboteur and monitor groups armed with the latest video camera and drone technology have recorded growing evidence of illegal activity by many hunts, which has been taken up by leading broadcasters including ITV and Channel 4 News. And, as well as animal cruelty, there are growing concerns about public safety in relation to packs of fox hounds crossing roads, railway lines, farmland and entering private properties — in some cases, even killing domestic pets.
The League Against Cruel Sports, which played a key role in delivering the Hunting Act 20 years ago, has now formed a new and powerful coalition of over 30 animal welfare and wildlife protection organisations, with millions of members. The growing influence of this ‘Time for Change’ group has helped deliver a ban on trail hunting on land owned by the National Trust and National Resource Wales. The coalition has also received staunch support from England’s most senior police officer dealing with illegal hunt activity, Chief Superintendent Matt Longman. He claims the law on foxhunting in England and Wales is unworkable and is allowing trail hunts to be a smokescreen for illegal activity. Pressure is now building for ending trail hunting across all National Parks.
Labour is currently polling ahead of the Tories in rural seats across Britain. There is an increasing number of voters that believe the party understands and respects the rural way of life better than the Tories. This, combined with polls showing 85 per cent of voters are opposed to repealing the fox hunting ban, provides Sir Keir Starmer with an excellent opportunity to ban trail hunting altogether — while simultaneously closing the wider exemptions in the Hunting Act that also allow deer to be hunted with hounds.
20 years on from Blair’s half-hearted efforts to ban fox hunting, Starmer can finally consign hunting with hounds to the history books. It’s an opportunity he must not waste.
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