Labour showing, yet again, they don't get the countryside

Ed Rowlandson, Political Relations Manager at the Countryside Alliance, writes about the importance of controlling wildlife populations for 'Free Market Conservatives'

Parliamentary Written Questions often do not reveal much. However, sometimes the examination of questions reveals themes and even a political party's agenda.

Labour's questions to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs have revealed an animal rights ideology that is entrenched within how they perceive the countryside and those that live in it.

This week we have had the MP for West Ham and Shadow Treasury Minister ask questions on deer stalking, bovine tuberculosis (badger culling) and grey squirrels. These are not urgent issues either for West Ham or for a Shadow Treasury Minister.

Indeed, these questions were not asked with the intention to understand better the Government's policy or to gain insight into a certain issue. In the case of the bovine tuberculosis questions, each was framed to insinuate that badger culls were too large, costly and, ultimately unnecessary. The West Ham MP asked: 'What the cost to the public purse is of each badger cull zone; and what estimate she has made of the economic cost-benefit of each of those areas to date; and if she will make a statement.'

Bovine tuberculosis is a serious animal health threat to badgers and cattle too, which the UK Government is rightly attempting to prevent it from spreading. Why does bovine tuberculosis need to be tackled? Because, as the Minister said in his response: 'Bovine TB is one of the greatest animal health threats to the UK and the disease costs the public over £100 million a year, with the cost to the farming industry around £50 million a year.' On top of this, the disease and the utter devastation it causes, results in horrendous stress and anxiety for our hard-working farming communities.

Anyone with a farming background, or indeed from a rural constituency, would therefore know how necessary the cull is to prevent the spread of this incredibly damaging disease.

The MP for West Ham also asked about deer: 'How many deer are shot in England and Wales each year; how many of those deer are shot cleanly the first time; and how many need to be dispatched with a second or further shot; and if she will make a statement.'

This is an extraordinary question for many reasons, but to frame the question in such a way to imply that deer stalking and deer management is somehow out of control and irresponsible highlights that the MP for West Ham neither understands the necessity of wildlife management or the practice of deer stalking.

The questions on grey squirrels were truly baffling. It is known, by almost everyone, that grey squirrels are responsible for red squirrels becoming an endangered species. Indeed, if you capture a grey squirrel it is illegal to release them back into the wild because of the threat they pose. However, the West Ham MP, not content with the high numbers of grey squirrels, wants to change this: 'Will [the Minister] amend the Invasive Alien Species (Enforcement and Permitting) Order 2019 to permit the licensing of vert practices and wildlife hospitals to release grey squirrels in areas where they pose no risk to native squirrel populations.'

The reader will no doubt have seen that all these questions are founded on an animal rights ideology; one that Labour tried to enforce in their own manifesto. It is clear that neither the MP for West Ham, or Labour, understand the issues in the countryside. it dismisses the need for wildlife management and threats pests pose.

We can only infer that Labour Whips have instructed this MP to ask questions, at a cost to the taxpayer, in order to feed their misplaced fixation with animal rights. It is this approach which catastrophically backfired last year resulting in the party losing 17 of their 32 rural seats.

Labour HQ would do well to listen to their own political allies at the Fabian Society, who wrote extensively on the desperate need to focus minds on tackling issues that actually matter to those living and working in the countryside.

Follow Ed on Twitter here

This article first appeared on February 18th, 2020 and was published by Free Market Conservatives.