15 years after the ban, what’s the state of hunting in Yorkshire?

The passage of the law which outlawed fox-hunting and hare-coursing with dogs, was the olive branch with which Tony Blair mollified Labour MPs who had helped him push university tuition fees through parliament.

But the former Prime Minister had misgivings about it. He was said to have made a bet with the Prince of Wales that hunting would go on irrespective, and later wrote in his autobiography that his “rash undertaking” was “one of the domestic legislative measures I most regret”.

The anniversary yesterday of what became a compromise Bill, allowing horsemen and women to pursue hounds following an artificial scent, saw a renewal of the old arguments on both sides.

But unlike previous milestones, it took place in the knowledge that change was off the agenda. At the election of two months ago, Boris Johnson broke ranks with his two last predecessors by ruling out any change to the legislation.

Some 250,000 people are estimated to have turned out for the Boxing Day hunts of a month-and-a-half ago – the sport’s biggest annual spectacle. Some were there to ride, most simply to watch. There are more than 300 active hunts across the country and well over a dozen in Yorkshire, even after the amalgamation of some of the smaller ones.

Polly Portwin, head of hunting at the Countryside Alliance, said the following demonstrated widespread support for the freedom to choose.

“It’s no different to going to a Boxing Day football match or a horse race,” she said. “It’s something that people still think is very important still in the countryside today, and Yorkshire is one of the most popular areas.”

Tim Bonner, the Alliance’s chief executive, said the legislation of 2005 was “never about animal welfare” but “an obsessive and ideological pursuit of the hunting community by Labour MPs who bizarrely saw a ban on hunting as part of their class war agenda”.

He added that although hunting was “never going to bring down a government”, Labour has been largely routed from the countryside in the 15 years since.

“The Hunting Act is almost unique in that it brings no benefits – not to the countryside, not to rural communities, not to wildlife and not even to those who spent so long promoting it,” Mr Bonner said.

Others say it has also brought no end to the killing of quarry, either by hunters or animals acting on instinct. The League Against Cruel Sports said it knew of 22 eye-witness reports of suspected illegal hunting in Yorkshire since the beginning of the fox-hunting season at the start of November.

Chris Luffingham, its director of campaigns, said: “Fox hunts in Yorkshire are behaving as they did before the ban.

“The hunts exploit weaknesses in the law or use the excuse they are following scent trails that have been laid. But it is evident they are simply covering up their bloodthirsty hunting activities.”

David Cameron and Theresa May both promised MPs a vote on whether to overturn the hunting ban, but no time was ultimately found for either.