Brian May brands Owen Paterson a ‘liar’ over badger cull claims

Queen guitarist Brian May has called Owen Paterson a liar over claims that the badger cull is working to reduce bovine TB rates.

Dr May hit out after former Defra secretary Mr Paterson claimed there had been an “extraordinary reduction” in bovine TB disease levels in Somerset and Gloucestershire, which proved that culling works.

“Calling an ex-minister a liar is, of course, a very serious accusation, but, in the light of new expert analysis of the statistics on the government’s badger cull, it is an inescapable conclusion,” said Dr May.

See also: Badger culls ‘are cutting bovine TB rates’

“Much more serious is the fact that Owen Paterson is apparently deliberately misrepresenting the facts to the farming community, giving them false hope that killing badgers will solve their bTB problem.  

“We, the public, of course, continue to foot the bill for this cruel, misguided, and ultimately doomed policy.”

Dr May also hit out against NFU president Meurig Raymond, who highlighted a “dramatic reduction” in disease levels in the cull areas as evidence the cull was working.

Mr Raymond said he had received personal assurances from David Cameron and Defra ministers that “the TB strategy is on the table and they are determined to drive it forward”.

Dr May said the claims of the NFU and Mr Paterson were “in direct opposition to the science and research of the 10-year Randomised Badger Culling Trial (RBCT)”, carried out under the last Labour government and widely regarded as the leading scientific study in relation to culling badgers.

The RBCT trials demonstrated that a failure to achieve the targets would result in perturbation, an effect where the disease is spread by transient animals out of the cull zone.

The NFU said anecdotal evidence from farmers in the cull zone has suggested that TB rates are falling in Gloucestershire and Somerset since the government’s pilot badger culls started in 2013. However, as of yet there are no official figures from Defra on TB rates in the cull zones that confirm this assertion.  

Professor Lord Krebs who oversaw the RBCT as chief scientific adviser to the government said: “It’s simply not true that the pilot culls in Gloucestershire and Somerset have resulted in a decline in TB. The NFU should be more honest with the public and its members.”

Anne Brummer, CEO of the Save Me Trust, said: “Mr Paterson is being deliberately misleading with his comments. He and the NFU know that the same figures show an increase in bovine TB around the cull zones. They are making this problem worse for farmers, the taxpayers, cattle and wildlife.”

The third year of the pilot badger culls in west Somerset and west Gloucestershire, as part of the government’s 25-year TB eradication programme, is due to end in 10 days. The first year of culling in a third county, Dorset, is also due to end at the same time.