Why is Labour banning trail hunting?

The government has announced its animal welfare strategy, and it’s fair to say it’s pretty far-reaching. It covers everything from rearing pigs and chickens to animal rescue centres and shooting hares, but by far the most controversial proposal is a ban on “trail hunting”.

This, as the name suggests, is where a scented rag is used instead of a live fox, for a hunt with horses and hounds. The practice was allowed to continue after proper foxhunting was banned by legislation in England and Wales in 2004 (a ban was imposed in Scotland in 2002). It’s going to be controversial.

There isn’t an overwhelming case, but it is in the 2024 Labour manifesto, and unequivocally: “Labour will improve animal welfare. We will ban trail hunting and the import of hunting trophies. We will end puppy smuggling and farming, along with the use of snare traps. And we will partner with scientists, industry, and civil society as we work towards the phasing out of animal testing.”

So, even if many humans may end up worse off by the end of the Labour government, at least the foxes will be happy.

Plenty. For example, many across all parties see foxhunting as cruel, and as a moral issue. Emma Reynolds, the newish secretary of state for the environment, food and rural affairs, argues that trail hunting has been used as a “smokescreen” for real foxhunting, and that the concession has been abused by the hunts.

She said: “We’re a nation of animal lovers. This government is delivering the most ambitious animal welfare strategy in a generation. We’ve already acted to improve zoo standards, end puppy smuggling, and protect livestock from dog attacks. Now, we’re planning to ban caged hens, cruel snares, trail hunting, and curb low-welfare dog breeding.”

It will be significant. The pro-hunting groups have already signalled that they’re up for a fight, and are characterising the debate as a “war on the countryside”, following previous bans on bloodsports and the reform of inheritance tax on farms.

The chief executive of the Countryside Alliance, Tim Bonner, said revisiting the issue of trail hunting is “completely unnecessary ... People across the countryside will be shocked that after Labour’s attack on family farms and its neglect of rural communities, it thinks banning trail hunting and snares used for fox control [is] a political priority.”

Lots of protests and direct action. Quite possibly huge rallies in Parliament Square, with all the lobby groups and the farmers uniting and clogging up the capital with tractors, hounds, slurry, and angry rural folk in Barbour jackets and flat caps.

The government will probably have a bit of a fight on its hands in the House of Lords, and, if the original ban from 20 years ago is anything to go by, will be spending an inordinate amount of ministerial effort and parliamentary time on the subject. If they jumble together everything from puppy farms to hunting to pig farrowing in one bill, it’s bound to get tangled up with multiple amendments and endless debates.

Indeed so. In his memoir, he says it was a “fatal mistake” – not only because of the vast amount of government time it took up, and because the fierce resistance left him feeling “like the damned fox”, but also because the ban was wrong. As he put it in 2010: “I started to realise that this wasn’t a small clique of weirdo inbreds delighting in cruelty, but a tradition, deeply embedded by history and profound community and social links, that was integral to a way of life.”

Blair also claims that he deliberately sabotaged the 2004 ban by putting in loopholes, such as permitting trail hunting, that would allow hunting to continue but with less cruelty. So, oddly, Keir Starmer is now rectifying what one of his own Labour predecessors did.

It should be more of a conscience issue than a party one, so the parliamentary debates will be slightly less partisan than usual. By the same token, there are lots of people who live in villages who hate foxhunting, and quite a number of voters in the most densely populated inner cities who don’t much care about country sports either way.

Improving animal welfare is generally popular, especially if consumers can be persuaded that British farmers will be treated fairly, by ministers making sure that food imports also adhere to the same high standards. While such issues don’t unusually drive the vote or decide an election like, say, the economy, there are incredibly passionate and noisy people on both ends of the spectrum for whom nothing matters more.

The net result is that Labour will be more likely to lose some of the unlikely gains it made in the counties at the last general election, and previously in local elections – mostly to the Conservatives, and some to Reform UK. Starmer will be portrayed, absurdly, as a ruthless authoritarian, with memes about Adolf Hitler banning hunting with hounds during the Third Reich.

Eventually, yes, as it was in Scotland a couple of years ago. However, like the cunning fox itself, the hunters will most likely find another way to evade laws that have consistently proved difficult to police. Like Blair, Starmer may come to wonder if it’s worth the hassle.