The Sunday Times and Sunday Telegraph are today reporting that Prime Minister, Theresa May, is set to abandon her free vote manifesto pledge on the foxhunting ban.
The papers are reporting the PM will announce in early 2018 her decision to not bring forward a free vote on repeal of the Hunting Act 2004 – which if won, would have seen foxhunting legalised. Downing Street say the report is “pure speculation”, but made clear there will be no change to fox hunting policy before the end of the session (2019).
IW MP committed to repeal pre-election
Isle of Wight Conservative MP, Bob Seely, had declared his support for repealing the Hunting Act in the run-up to this year’s snap election.
Back in May, before the election, in responses to questions from residents, he said,
“First, I do not hunt or shoot myself.
“Second, I want to see a robust and lawful framework for addressing cruelty, and causing unnecessary suffering to animals.
“I do think that the fox population needs to be controlled, to protect farmed poultry, gamebirds and livestock. Methods such as shooting or trapping are often far more cruel.
“The Isle of Wight and other hunts have a tradition of maintaining the countryside and managing the fox population; criminalising them seems the wrong approach.”
Bob went on to say,
“I support Theresa May’s commitment to a free vote in Parliament and I believe we should repeal or amend the ban to focus on stamping out and criminalising any acts of deliberate cruelty and welfare abuses. I believe that legislation should be driven by the evidence on what is the most humane and effective way to manage fox populations.”
Seely: “Don’t know if I’d make the same commitment”
It appears from today’s news that Bob won’t need to worry about that anymore. However, there were early indications last month that he was beginning to change his mind o nthe subject.
During a recent Facebook live phone-in with IWR, when asked about his position in relation to the foxhunting bill, Bob explained, “I’ve slightly changed my mind on this, still thinking it over”.
He went on to say,
“If offered a vote tomorrow on taking the law back to pre-ban, I don’t know if I’d make same commitment as I did in the election.
“There’s a difference between being responsible for animals reared for food and animals hunted. You have to look at them as separate issues.”
He went on to say that if there was a repeal vote,
“I’m not sure, I now can’t guarantee I’ll say the same as I did before.”
Already revealed during the summer
However, the news that the PM had planned to u-turn on a manifesto pledge and “scrap fox hunting vote” broke back in July, as reported by The Independent.
In an exclusive, they reported that DEFRA minister, Theresa Coffey, said,
“The government’s manifesto includes a free vote on the Hunting Act 2004, but we are not planning to bring forward a free vote in this session (which ends 2019).”
OnTheWight contacted Bob earlier today with some questions relating to the above and will update this article once we hear back from him.
Sources: Sunday Times, Sunday Telegraph, The Independent.
