Hague calls for election delay

Mr Hague is meeting with farming and business leaders in Cumbria

UK opposition leader William Hague has urged Prime Minister Tony Blair to delay calling a general election while the foot-and-mouth outbreak rages.

For the first time publicly, Mr Hague called on the prime minister to postpone the anticipated 3 May election, saying this "would be putting party before country".

He told reporters while on a visit to the affected village of Hawes in Wensleydale, North Yorkshire, that if he was prime minister he "would be concentrating on fighting this disease and not the election".

The call follows Mr Blair's admission that he cannot say when the crisis will be brought under control, as the slaughter programme intensifies.

Crisis in the UK

11 new cases on Thursday

Total confirmed cases 753

788,956 animals due for slaughter

496,821 already slaughtered

349,379 carcasses destroyed

Downing Street says it has 48 hours to decide whether to implement a limited vaccination programme, following Thursday's meeting between Mr Blair and farmers' leaders.

Mass cull continues

National Farmers' Union President Ben Gill stressed that both the government and the industry was doing all it could to "stop this scourge and get rid of it from Britain".

Army butchers are being used for the first time to help slaughter a backlog of more than 280,000 animals, as killing continues at a massive burial site in Great Orton, Cumbria.

The total number of confirmed cases in the UK has risen to 753, with 11 new outbreaks of the disease on Thursday.

Click here to see 1967 foot-and-mouth figures compared to 2001 figures.

Before meeting business and tourism leaders in Carlisle on Thursday, Mr Hague said he had been "exasperated by the government's slow reaction" to the crisis.

He wants measures speeded up, with Army troops in more areas and more farm burials.

Poll dilemma

Until now Mr Hague has confined himself to urging the government to bring in legislation enabling it to delay local elections scheduled for 3 May, but now he appears to be stepping up pressure on the government.

Many Labour MPs have urged Mr Blair to stick to 3 May, but a possible postponement to 7 June is being talked about at Westminster.

Mr Blair's final decision, expected to be made over the weekend, will not be made easier by an opinion poll in Thursday's Times newspaper.

It suggests support for Labour is unchanged on 50%, well ahead of the Tories despite the devastating disease.

The timing will depend on whether Mr Blair considers enough has been done to control the outbreak.

Up to half a million sheep will be buried

Ministers are hoping a cull of healthy animals in Cumbria will create a firebreak around areas where foot-and-mouth is prevalent, and stop it spreading.

As part of efforts to stamp out the disease, Britain has received approval from European Union vets for vaccination of animals around affected UK areas if necessary.

The Netherlands has already been given permission to vaccinate in limited circumstances.

But Mr Gill warned that such a programme would never be 100% effective.

He said vaccination could only be one of the measures to contain the spread in disease hotspots, adding that vaccinated animals would still have to be culled.

On Wednesday Mr Blair told MPs in the Commons it was difficult to predict how the outbreak would develop because new evidence suggested about 1.3m sheep had been moved or exported during February, when the disease could have been incubating.

Tourism appeal

The revelation that a new case of foot-and-mouth in Devon on Thursday is in an area previously free of outbreaks has raised concern among farming leaders.

NFU regional director Antony Gibson said: "The South Hams is one of the few parts of Devon where we were hoping things could be getting back to normal, sooner rather than later, because it is such an important holiday area."

The prime minister has reiterated the government's commitment to helping a UK tourist industry whose revenue is being threatened by the foot-and-mouth crisis.

The rural tourist industry - worth £12bn a year in England alone - is already losing an estimated £100m a week, and faces a nightmare Easter season if visitors continue to stay away.

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