My personal position is that I wish to see a complete ban. I have always voted for this on previous occasions and did so again when the Hunting Bill was last debated in the House of Commons.

As expected the House of Lords responded by blocking the Bill.

I shall press the Government to reintroduce it as soon as possible, and if necessary use the Parliament Act to ensure that it becomes law, even though that would of course mean a further delay in getting the legislation through. This would be a much shorter delay, however, than would happen if the current Bill was dropped, and a new Bill had to be introduced.

We have spent far too long in dealing with hunting, and need to get it banned once and for all, and this has to be done during this Parliament. It cannot be left until after the next election.

July 2004

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