UK Edition
Theresa May poised to abandon pledge for free vote on ending fox hunting ban
Theresa May is poised to abandon a manifesto pledge to give MPs a free vote on overturning the fox hunting ban in a move that would infuriate the party’s rural supporters.
The Prime Minister is expected to announce early next year that she will drop the commitment, which caused fierce debate among her policy chiefs when the manifesto was drawn up.
Recent opinion polls have suggested that more than two thirds of voters want fox hunting to remain illegal, and Mrs May believes the policy jars with her attempt to rebrand the Tories as the “caring” party.
It comes as 250,000 people prepare to gather at Boxing Day hunts up and down the country, many of whom had hoped the hunting ban might soon be over.
Mrs May has always been a supporter of blood sports and voted against the ban on hunting with hounds, which was passed under Labour in 2004.
During the election campaign she came under attack for sticking with the party’s commitment for a free vote, which was particularly unpopular with younger voters who the party is hoping to win back.
She said at the time: ”Some of the other forms of dealing with foxes can be cruel, so my view is it should be a free vote for Parliament.”
The Sunday Times quoted a “senior Whitehall source” as saying: “The Prime Minister will make it clear in an intervention early in the new year that this is no longer a Conservative Party policy.”
Another Whitehall source told The Telegraph that Mrs May “wants to find a way to ditch it”.
Downing Street refused to confirm that any formal announcement will be made, but a spokesman said: “As you will have seen, there is no vote that could change the current policy on fox hunting scheduled in this session of Parliament.”
Even if Mrs May did eventually decide to push ahead with a free vote on overturning the ban, there is no guarantee she would win it. Up to 60 Tory MPs would fight any attempt to lift the hunt ban.
Sports minister Tracey Crouch, work and pensions minister Caroline Dinenage and justice minister Dominic Raab have all said they would vote against overturning the ban, and the vast majority of MPs from other parties would be expected to vote to keep the ban in place.
Under the 2004 act, hunts must follow artificial trails, though animal rights groups claim many still kill animals. Around 170 packs of registered foxhounds, plus more than 80 packs of harriers, beagles and basset hounds, with 40,000 members between them, have kept going for the past 13 years in the hope the ban would be reversed.
Michael Gove, the Environment Secretary, who was previously in favour of blood sports, is understood to be happy the let the free vote pledge lapse, having publishing a draft bill recognising animals, including wild ones, as "sentient".
A key clause in the bill says the Government "must have regard to the welfare needs of animals as sentient beings in formulating and implementing government policy".
Tim Bonner, chief executive of the Countryside Alliance, which campaigns against the hunt ban, said dropping the pledge on a free vote would be divisive among the Tory membership.
He said: "Conservative membership has already gone through the floor, so now it has only about 130,000 members. We have 100,000, while the British Association for Shooting and Conservation has 150,000.
"There are tens of thousands more in organisations like the National Farmers Union. There is a lot of overlap between their supporters and ours, who would not be happy."
Mrs May could include a policy change on fox hunting in a relaunch of her premiership planned for next year, which will also include a third major speech on Brexit and a Cabinet reshuffle that could include the creation of a new Whitehall department for housing and infrastructure.