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DAVID CAMERON has signalled he would back repealing the ban on hunting.
The Tory leader made clear he was likely to vote to scrap the 2005 legislation if the Tories win the next election.
"We will have a free vote in a new Parliament on whether to repeal the hunting ban," he said at the Woodstock Literary Festival in Oxfordshire. "My own view is the hunting ban is a bad piece of legislation, it hasn't worked, it has made a mockery of the law, a lot of time was wasted on it, and I think we would be better off without it. That gives you a clue to how I will vote."
Shadow justice minister Edward Garnier QC is leading a campaign to drum up support in the country to axe the Hunting Act which outlaws hunting with dogs. Viscount Astor, the stepfather of Mr Cameron's wife Samantha, is said to be backing the moves.
But the Tories have stressed that there will be no government legislation to overturn the ban.
Labour chiefs could seize on the bid to legalise hunting with dogs to seek to persuade voters, particularly in urban areas, not to desert their party at the next election.
At the festival, Mr Cameron also told how he and his wife were hoping for another child.
He also said that the two biggest literary influences on his political career were George Orwell's 1984 and Tony Benn's Arguments for Democracy.
Reader views (18)
Hunting is barbaric and must remain in the history books along with bear baiting and cock fighting.
Only vote for anti hunt candidates in general election
- Tom, Plymouth
Flo, London - What bits of the legislation do you think are badly worded? How would you have worded them better? Have you actually READ the legislation, or are you just parroting a Countryside Alliance line? Thought so.
As for your comment about public support for the ban - why do you think Bullingdon Bertie would never dare put the issue to a public referendum? Because he'd get the thrashing of his life, that's why. Hunting with hounds is rightly loathed by a big majority in this country.
- Michael, Folkestone, UK
I always thought that fox-hunting was a way of tearing a tired,frigtened,defensless animal apart with a baying pack of dogs , whilst watched by a gang of half drunk toffs.
please correct me if i am wrong.
MR(OOOOHH THE EVIL OF FOXHUNTING) PASTRY
- Mr Pastry, london
Mr. Pastry from London likens Foxhunting to Bear Baiting and Dog Fighting - nothing could be further from the truth. The fox was hunted in his natural habitat, free to go where he wanted and usually, if he was fit well and strong, would be away unscathed and moved on from a place where he was not welcome. He was not confined in a shed, ring or pit to face a foe or even one of his own kind confined space or even while being constrained. Huning with hounds was the nearest thing to nature (the fox not having a natural preditor since the demise of the wolf in the wild) it was survival of the fittest and was a way of controlling the fox population and ensuring its heathy future in our countryside. Above all if caught by a Hound the fox's demise was swift and sure. Shooting reduces the numbers yes - but with no selection process, no closed season during the breeding time and certainly not always a clean kill with injured foxes left to cope as best they can. No vet out there in the wild to pick up the pieces of injured foxes, orphaned dependant cubs and old diseased foxes.
- H. Found, Great Britain
What happens when those of us who want the ban on hunting to stay....sign a DECLARATION to disobey the repealed law ....as did the hunts people, will the police shrug and say 'this law is unworkable'?
- M Stoneman, Suffolk England
LOOKS LIKE CAMERON IS ON TO ANOTHER VOTE LOSER.
Why not legalise dog fighting Mr Cameron , or bear baiting, oh and why you are at it , re-open the gallows at tyburn(might not be a bad idea).Im sure loads of tory voters would also like to see the asylums open again on a Sunday so they could stroll round and look at the inmates jolly antics for a shilling.
SMELL THE COFFEE PEOPLE, THE TORIES AND LABOUR WILL NEVER CHANGE AND WE THE VOTERS CONTINUE TO SUFFER.
MR(GOR BLIMEY GUVNOR,ME SONS STUCK UP A CHIMENY) PASTRY
- Mr Pastry, london
Well now we can see what the priorities of a Cameron government are going to be.
I'll remember this when I vote as I'm afraid I seem to be more concerned about trivial matters such as health, education and law and order.
- Anna P, Croydon
"Think carefully, Mr Cameron, the hunting ban is about the only good thing this Government has done, and is supported by a large majority of people in this country.
- Shirley, Bromley"
Actually Shirley, I would disgree.
Whether people have the right to hunt or not, it divided the country then and will divide it again, should the issue come up. I also expect that it isn't supported by a large majority of people in this country.
The ban of hunting made a mockery of a law and is a very badly worded piece of legislation.
Oh and didn't a number of 'top' politicians abstain from the vote ....
- Flo, London, UK
The hunting ban was always going to fail because the target was not animal cruelty. The target was always trying to stop toffs being toffs. And it was always going to be a struggle to ban toffs while using foxes as the key.
It might have been far more successful if they had passed a law stopping people from wearing riding pink while on a horse. But no, the law was so circumspect that even the Police don't know what to make of it.
It was a bad law.
- George, London
To be fair, the Hunting Act 2004 was so badly drafted, it even failed the spell checker in the Lords, so it really needs a good going over, which should please both the pro- and anti- hunting lobbies. Yet most legislation created by the current government is equally bad. So the next few governments are going to be saddled with reworking all of it, (hopefully this time with the help of some staff who actually understand law, and how to spell 'hare'). Now, if the next government is to get anything else done, and they're going to have their work cut out for them, they're going to have to pick and choose what to fix first. A free vote therefore seems an eminently sensible suggestion.
- Threaded, Roskilde, Denmark
Why doesn't Cameron come out and tell the British public whether they will get a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty (E.U. Constitution) if he is elected! Brown and Clegg have made clear that they don't believe in the people having a say in the future system of government. Where does Cameron stand? Issues such as a hunting ban could one day be decided for all of its provinces by the E.U. if the present federalizing of Europe continues apace. The people's right to a say on the Lisbon Treaty towers above issues such as hunting simply because it affects what government in future will be making decisions on such issues.
- Phil Jones, London UK
I am Liberal not a Tory. It is important the State does not tell people how to live their lives. The City telling the Countryside. Mr Cameron is right to repeal the ban and focus on jobs and public debt.
- Andrew, London
David Cameron shows that the nasty Conservative Party is alive and well. Only Labour can protect the hunting ban and see it strengthened. The ban does work, it has faced problems due to attitudes in some Police forces who have chosen not to respect the will of the people.
As the Police force is independent in how they operate it has taken many years for the penny to drop that it is they who have to act. The Government has been putting as much pressure on the Police as possible to do their duty.
This issue is important as its also about democracy, something Cameron seeks to ignore..A free vote means nothing as he knows he would win it.
David Cameron is showing what a disgrace he is by supporting extreme animal cruelty. He is unfit to be PM and I'm happy to vote Labour to keep him out of office.
Animals and the nation deserve so much more then David Cameron. Labour has shown its continued commitment to stand up against the bloodsport lobby to protect our wildlife.
- Gary Hills, Hitchin, Stevenage
Cameron - you have just lost my vote
- Barold, London
Great. This was another Nu Labor mistake. Countryside needs its liberties as well and the UK crisi has hit this activity as well.
- Linda, Islington, London
It is not that it hasn't worked, it hasn't been enforced.
If Labour think that selling out their morals to win votes in the country side over the hunting issue, then they are very misguided indeed. Their time is up and it is high time they recognised it.
A hunting ban is right and proper in my view.
- Frank, Home Counties, England.
Think carefully, Mr Cameron, the hunting ban is about the only good thing this Government has done, and is supported by a large majority of people in this country.
- Shirley, Bromley
I hope Cameron will also address other Cruelty to Animals concerns that the Labour Party has ignored. Factory farming; transportation of live animals to far flung parts of Europe; dog fighting and breeding dogs for fighting; the importation of exotic birds and reptiles for keeping in cages for the amusement of the unimaginative.
- Norman Roberts, West Ham, UK
