Tony Blair banned fox hunting after taking £1m donation, claims Lord Mandelson

Last week several newspapers reported comments by Lord (Peter) Mandelson in a Times Radio podcast which suggested that the £1 million donated to the Labour Party before the 1997 election by the Political Animal Lobby (an offshoot of IFAW) helped to secure the commitment to a vote on hunting in the Labour manifesto.

The Alliance responded to the story by reminding people that Tony Blair had already admitted that the hunting ban was one of the legislative measures he most regrets, saying that:

“The Hunting Act has failed at every level, not least in the damage it has caused to the countryside and biodiversity. A future Labour government should right the wrongs of the past and remove this running sore in Labour’s relationship with rural communities.”

Whilst this story might seem to be ancient history it is actually very relevant to today when the Labour Party is once more in a position to take power and is again contemplating legislation on hunting.

In The Guardian’s report on the Mandelson story, a Labour Party source said:

“Despite the ban, animal rights campaigners say foxhunting continues to take place because of clauses in the bill that allow dogs to chase a scented cloth instead. Activists say this is used as a “smokescreen” to allow hunting to continue to take place.

“Labour promised at the last election to tighten loopholes in the legislation by toughening penalties for those who break the laws it creates and introducing a clause that punishes those who “recklessly” allow dogs to kill foxes.

“Party officials say they will keep those elements in the next manifesto, but do not intend to bring forward any other major piece of animal rights legislation which might further alienate rural communities.”

This suggests that the policy adopted at this year’s Labour Party Conference to “close loopholes in the Hunting Act” will be in the Labour manifesto.

The briefing specifically references toughening penalties, which would presumably involve introducing a custodial sentence for Hunting Act offences which currently attract a maximum fine of £5,000. It also says that it will introduce a clause that punishes those who “recklessly” allow dogs to kill foxes. Recklessness has an established legal definition which is essentially the taking of an unjustified risk that leads to unlawful harm or damage. This would waste even more police time and make defending spurious allegations of illegal hunting made by partisan activists more challenging.

We have long warned the Labour Party against launching another divisive culture war in the countryside, but it seems determined to ignore the lessons of history. It took seven years, 700 hours of parliamentary time and a huge amount of political capital to get the Hunting Act onto the statute book. Labour’s leadership should think very carefully about whether it wants to sully its reputation in the countryside for another 20 years.