Hunt ban set to be election issue

29 November 1999



Hunt ban set to be election issue

LABOURS plans to ban fox-hunting could come unstuck from planned legislation coinciding with the date of the next general election.

The government has confirmed that its offer to provide time for a private members Bill will not “kick in” until the results of an inquiry into the impact of a ban.

That is unlikely to be before next April at the earliest, with the result that a Bill put forward this parliamentary session would have only a slight chance of succeeding.

Home secretary Jack Straw, in a television interview yesterday, hinted that he expected the Bill to come in the next session of parliament.

In that timetable, the Bill could well have reached the Lords at the time Blair calls the election, expected to be in spring 2001.

In these circumstances, the Lords could “kill” the bill.