Protests hit hunting debate

Brecon and Talybont huntsman outside Parliament

Hunt supporters from Wales have joined stormy protests outside Parliament as MPs debate a Bill which could pave the way for a ban on hunting with dogs.

A free vote is due to take place next month when MPs will be able to choose between three options including an outright ban.

Elfyn Llwys pushing for assembly decision

Opening the debate, Home Secretary Jack Straw indicated that his personal choice was for a 'middle way' option which would impose a licensing system.

Ahead of the debate, police vans blocked off the entrance to the House of Commons as several hundred demonstrators massed outside Parliament.

MPs are due to vote on whether the Hunting Bill, which offers the House three options:

• an almost total ban on hunting
• self-regulation
• compulsory licensing of hunts

Plaid Cymru, whose MPs support hunting, want the issue decided in Wales.

"We believe passionately that this matter should be for the National Assembly to decide," said Elfyn Llwyd MP for Meirionydd Nant Conwy.

"That is the express wish of the assembly, so we feel their views should be taken into account and it should be decided locally."

But Home Secretary Jack Straw once again dismissed that call before leading off the debate

Suzanne Campbell is supporting a ban

He told MPs: "The truth is that Parliament has never had a proper opportunity to give legislative effect to its wishes on the question of hunting.

"The government decided to bring forward a government Bill so that the will of Parliament could prevail with the aim that the issue could be properly resolved."

Mr Straw said he would vote for the self-regulation option advocated by the cross-party Middle Way group of MPs.

Newport West MP Paul Flynn, on the other hand, supports and outright ban.

"The Burns Report made it very clear that a ban would make virtually no difference to jobs," he said.

"If the hunts give up their cruelty and goes over to drag hunting their would probably be more jobs.

Paul Flynn MP wants an outright ban

"What this is about is the prolonged chase of a defenceless animal subjected to great suffering then disembowelled and torn to pieces.

"Most civilised people say there are alternatives to that. And the alternatives are to kill the animal quickly, cleanly and humanely."

MPs have already voted overwhelmingly in favour of outlawing hunting when in 1998 Labour backbencher Mike Foster introduced a private members' bill which then ran out of parliamentary time.

This time round, however, the government has introduced the "multi-choice" Hunting Bill in its own time. MPs have a free vote on the Bill.

The Countryside Alliance is planning to stage a mass protest march through London next spring if the legislation makes further headway in Parliament.

The organisation has vowed that the march will be far bigger than the London demonstration it organised in March 1998.