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Hunt groups set for rally as MPs vote
Simon McGee Political Editor LABOUR backbenchers have struck a deal with the Government to bring forward the ban on hunting with dogs by six months, to July 2006, as tens of thousands of pro-hunt protesters prepare to converge on London today. The Bill outlawing the hunting of foxes with hounds, and hare-coursing, will be voted on by MPs today, while thousands stand outside the Houses of Parliament, in opposition to the Government's plans.
MPs will be given a free vote, but Ministers are threatening to invoke the Parliament Act to ram the Bill though the Lords if peers try to block the Commons' will in the coming weeks.
But, as a result of the new deal, instead of the ban coming into effect in November 2006, as Ministers had proposed last week, it would be outlawed from July 31. This means the ban would not fall in the middle of a hunting season.
The agreement between the Government and the anti-hunt backbenchers, who wanted earlier implementation, means there will be just one full hunting season left before hunting with dogs is outlawed forever.
Yorkshire hunts were last night "furious" at the plans, and vowed to keep on fighting the Bill – and hunting if it should become law.
The Countryside Alliance's spokesman in Yorkshire, James Bates, said more than 1,000 protesters would be travelling down from the region today – and 20,000 were expected to gather on Parliament Square.
"They're all fired up," he said. "The feeling is of extreme anger."
Steven Newlove, of Thorpe Hill Farm, Whixley, and a member of the York and Ainsty North Hunt said 120 people from his hunt alone would be travelling to London today.
He said: "We're going with the hope that MPs will do as Tony Blair promised to do, which is to base hunting legislation on evidence and principle.
"Bringing forward a ban will be an assault on ordinary people, and everyone who believes in freedom and tolerance. If a
ban is not imposed,
our hunt will continue to control the fox
population in the way it has done for many generations, which
is effective and humane.
"But if the ban is imposed, we will challenge it in the courts, and thousands of ordinary people will defy the ban and continue hunting."
But Labour MPs in Yorkshire welcomed the agreement.
Cleethorpes MP Shona McIsaacs said: "A month ago we
were still debating if there would ever be
a ban, rather than when. The important thing is that we have a date when it will be banned."
Brigg and Goole MP Ian Cawsey added: "I'd like the delay to be a year, but I don't have a problem with the end of July."
Last week, the
Government said it saw "no justification
or need" for thousands of workers whose livelihoods are at threat to receive
any form of compensation.
Ministers said that the hare-coursing ban would come into effect three months after the Bill received Royal Assent.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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