Tim Bonner: Labour's totemic issue

"On something as totemic as this I am afraid that we still have to press the amendment to a vote". So said the Labour shadow Defra Minister, Daniel Zeichner, in the committee stage of the Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill this week. What was this totemic issue you might ask? Surely some fundamental principle of animal welfare such as the duty of care that humans owe to domestic animals, or perhaps a revolutionary approach to farm animal welfare that might improve the lives of millions of animals? Sadly, as you have probably guessed by now, it was neither of these things. Mr Zeichner's totemic issue was, in fact, an exemption in proposed sheep worrying legislation that would allow a pack of hounds, like other working dogs, to be "at large", ie not on leads, in a field with livestock.

He lost his vote, but the fact that Mr Zeichner, a normally reasonable politician, resorted to such a description reinforces how deep Labour's damaging obsession with hunting and other rural issues runs. It was the late Tony Banks, then the Labour MP for West Ham, who originally described hunting as "a totemic issue for the Labour party" during the long and wasteful battle over the Hunting Act. It was an odd enough admission then, perhaps only bettered by his colleague Peter Bradley who admitted that Labour's pursuit of a hunting ban was "class war", but more than 16 years after that law was passed it is quite extraordinary that Labour has not found a more important totem.

If Mr Zeichner's language, and the numerous amendments he has tabled to the Bill attacking hunting, were not enough he has also moved amendments demanding a review of game bird welfare and rearing systems. Even before Labour's catastrophic performance in the 2019 election in which they lost nearly every constituency with a significant rural element, the Alliance, the Fabians and significant voices within the party had been warning that it was out of touch with rural voters. After being rejected so completely in the countryside in 2019, Labour was again told that its agenda was completely at odds with the concerns of people in the countryside. Labour leader Keir Starmer and shadow Environment Secretary Luke Pollard have both publicly accepted the critique of Labour rural policy laid out so clearly in our report The Elephant in the Countryside: Labour's Rural Problem. And yet, like an alcoholic who cannot keep away from the bottle, as soon as there is a hint of an opportunity Labour cannot resist and returns to its self-destructive habit.

The route to recovery is clear: Labour needs to focus on issues that resonate with rural people rather than prioritise prejudiced class war policies which are irrelevant to voters in the countryside. It will take more than words to travel that road however, Labour still seems unable to actually take the first step.