Labour ‘alienating rural people’ with plan to ban trail hunting, says Countryside Alliance | Hunting
Traditional Boxing Day hunts have been picked up across the UK, as opponents of Keir Starmer’s government’s ban on stalking claim it is “alienating rural people”.
The warning came from the Rural Alliance, a pressure group, which published a poll finding that 65 per cent of people thought the Labor leadership had unfairly neglected rural communities.
The government’s animal welfare strategy, published on Monday, includes provisions to ban track hunting. The practice, which involves hunting dogs following the scent rather than a live animal, was initiated to comply with the ban on tracking foxes introduced in the 2004 Hunting Law.
The move to ban stalking is likely to cause further friction between the government and farming communities following the latest row over changes to inheritance tax breaks, which led to the government making a partial U-turn on Tuesday. Consultations on how to implement the ban will begin in early 2026.
The Countryside Alliance said the hunts contributed more than £100 million to England’s rural economy. But critics say trail hunting has been used as a smokescreen to enable illegal fox hunting for two decades. Hunt saboteurs who monitor hunts over the Christmas period have presented what they claim is evidence of illegal activity.
Tim Bonner, chief executive of the Rural Alliance, said: “When Keir Starmer said he wanted a new relationship with the countryside we all assumed he wanted a better one, but within 18 months his government has alienated rural people and created the clear impression that it doesn’t care about the countryside. “His skewed priorities have overtaken policies that would benefit rural people, such as taxing family farms, raising rates for rural businesses and banning stalking.
“While partial changes to the family farm tax are a step in the right direction, the government desperately needs to learn the key lesson from this policy debacle – it needs to work with the rural community, not legislate against it.”
A survey by analytics firm ORB International found that only 36% of people in the UK agreed or strongly agreed that the Labor government cares about rural people, while 76% said they believe the government prioritizes urban issues over rural issues. ORB surveyed 2,083 British adults online between 12 and 14 December.
Defending its policies, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said: “This government is determined to ban track hunting, which is often used as a cover for illegal fox hunting and has strong public support across the country.”
Referring to his response to a review of the farming sector by former National Farmers Union president Minette Batters, he added: “This builds on previous animal welfare reforms undertaken by this government, including giving the police greater powers to prevent dog attacks on livestock and protect farmers and animals.
“The Batters review highlighted the need for greater collaboration between industry, farmers and government, and we will do exactly that. We have increased the individual inheritance tax threshold from £1 million to £2.5 million, meaning couples with estates worth up to £5 million will not pay inheritance tax.”
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage is among those trying to exploit the planned stalking ban as a “culture war” issue. He attended a hunt in Kent on Boxing Day and told GB News the government was made up of people who were “uninformed” about rural communities and “it’s as if they hated the countryside”.
Emma Slawinski, chief executive of the League Against Cruel Sports, said: “Banning land hunting is not an attack on the countryside, it is an attack on those who use it to get around weaknesses in the law and have been doing so for the last two decades.”
Commenting on the ORB poll, he said: “The same poll shows that banning trail hunting narrowly missed out on coming last on the list of issues survey respondents said would affect their vote at the next election, showing that the Rural Alliance narrative is completely disconnected from rural values.”
