Prime Minister confirms what her Government had already made clear

Countryside Alliance Chief Executive Tim Bonner writes:

You may have seen coverage of Theresa May's statement regarding the future of the Hunting Act this morning. To some extent there is nothing new in this after Defra Ministers confirmed back in July that there would be no vote and we have all known the reality of the situation since the General Election exit polls were announced.

In an interview on the BBC's Andrew Marr programme aired earlier today, the Prime Minister Theresa May told the presenter: "So just as we've looked at issues on school funding, on tuition fees, on housing and we're taking forward approaches in relation to that, on this issue of fox hunting what I can say is that there won't be a vote during this parliament."

There were suggestions in a Sunday Times article published before Christmas that Theresa May would signal a change of policy on hunting. This has not happened. The Prime Minister has simply reiterated what we all knew and what her Government had already made clear: there can be no resolution of the hunting issue under a minority Government.

There is no benefit to hunting in engaging in a discussion of the inevitable given the position that the Government finds itself in.

None of this changes our policy that the Hunting Act is a bad law passed for bad reasons, or our commitment to campaign to ensure that a future parliament addresses its failings. That is what the Countryside Alliance has been focussing its attention on since the election and that must remain the primary focus of the campaign for hunting.