Tim Bonner: Will Labour ban shooting?

Buried beneath the wreckage of Labour Shadow Defra Secretary, Steve Reed’s announcement that he wants to ban drag and trail hunting was - at face value - better news for game shooting. In his interview with The Times, Mr Reed said “Labour supports the rights for shooting as long as it’s done within the law. Why wouldn’t we?”. In another recent interview in The House Magazine, it was put to him that the Countryside Alliance suspects Labour in Wales will “ban game shooting through the back door” and asked whether we are wrong to worry about Labour’s approach in Westminster. He responded: “We have no plans whatsoever to do anything of the sort. As long as shooting is done responsibly and within the law, then shooting can continue”.

The message that Labour wants to send, as on right to roam and meat eating, is that shooting is part of the rural way of life and it does not want to interfere. As Mr Reed puts it, people in the countryside “don’t want urban people like me telling them how they should and shouldn’t live.” How this relates to his commitment to eliminate hunts is unclear, but that is an issue for another day.

The question for now is whether we can take Labour at its word on shooting. Certainly, it now looks very unlikely that there will be commitments to restrict game farming and consult on banning grouse shooting as there were in the 2019 Labour manifesto. However, Labour’s position is not as straightforward as Mr Reed suggests. In Wales, Labour has answered his question about why it would not support shooting rights. Five years ago the Labour Welsh Environment Minister said that the Welsh Government "does not support commercial pheasant shooting or the breeding of gamebirds", because of "ethical issues". It has subsequently banned game shooting on public land, refused to pay Covid grants to shooting businesses and is now planning to license the release of all pheasants and partridges in Wales. Most of this does not even require primary legislation so, if Labour in Westminster also developed an ‘ethical objection’ to game shooting, the lack of manifesto commitments would be scant consolation.

There is also the issue of firearms licensing which falls outside Mr Reed’s portfolio and his placatory statements. Significant voices within Labour continue to push for fundamental changes to the licensing system and in particular the requirement for shotguns to be classified as Section 1 firearms. This would essentially reverse the burden on applicants to prove that they had reason to own a gun and add significantly to the bureaucracy of gun ownership. On top of this it seems certain that the cost of a licence will rise significantly as a future government seeks to recover costs from a ridiculously fragmented licensing system.

We should certainly not look a gift horse in the mouth and Labour’s whole approach to rural issues is far more positive than could have been expected even a couple of years ago. The party will be just as aware as we are, however, about the policies of the Corbyn era and the actions of the Labour government in Wales. If and when Labour are in government in Westminster, the choices will come thick and fast on issues that affect shooting. In the light of those examples and Labour’s bizarre approach to hunting it is entirely understandable that it will take more than a few words to reassure the shooting community.