Could Environment Secretary Andrea Leadsom’s failure to mention a Free Vote on the Hunting Act in her maiden Conservative Conference speech have been a last-minute decision influenced by recent anti-hunting data? asks League Against Cruel Sports.
With a new League Against Cruel Sports poll showing a strong bias amongst voters for anti-hunting election candidates in Conservative marginals and a televised plea from explorer and national treasure Sir Ranulph Fiennes calling for the government to drop any attempts to repeal the Hunting Act, it would not have made sense, says animal welfare campaigners League Against Cruel Sports.
Eduardo Gonçalves said: “Leadsom made the right decision not to announce a Hunting Act repeal.
“The polls have spoken as have the growing number of conservative supporters. It would have been political disaster for Ms Leadsom to confirm her commitment to repealing the hunting ban.
“Today was due to be the day when Andrea Leadsom boldly pronounced that she would be aiming to bring back hunting – but the silence on that subject was deafening. Could it be that she has listened to the public surge in opinion revealed by our polling in the last week? The vast majority of people are against hunting – and that includes Conservative voters, people living in the countryside and national treasures like Sir Ranulph Fiennes.
“It appears that Ms Leadsom has halted her plans to try and bring back hunting, at least for the time being. What we now need to see is the manifesto pledge dropped once and for all, and a strong commitment to enforcing and strengthening wildlife crime laws, including the Hunting Act.
“Ms Leadsom spoke about leaving the environment in a better state than we found it. We totally agree. That means not riding around the country killing the very nature that makes our environment what it is. Now is the time to understand that if Brexit means Brexit, then Hunting Ban means Hunting Ban – let’s not go back to a sad, worn out activity and move on into the brave new world that Andrea Leadsom claims she wants to see.”
Last week, a new Ipsos MORI poll commissioned by animal welfare charity the League Against Cruel Sports revealed 84% of the public do not want a return to fox hunting and 65% would view an election candidate more favourably if they supported keeping hunting with dogs illegal compared with only 9% who would view a candidate more favourably if they supported making hunting with dogs legal again.
Based on previous research, the charity estimates the vast majority of Labour and Liberal Democrat MPs would vote against repeal while at
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