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Monkeys would be banned as pets under a Labour government, the party declared tonight.

Primates including marmosets, capuchins, squirrel monkeys and lemurs would no longer be allowed to be kept or traded in the UK.

An estimated 5,000 primates are being kept as pets in Britain.

Experts believe some are owned as designer pets and must-have accessories.

Labour believes only a total ban will end animal cruelty – with the move included in the party’s “Animal Welfare Manifesto” which will be published later this month.

Under its plan, monkeys and other primates currently kept as pets would be allowed to stay with their owners as long as the keepers were registered and agreed to subject themselves to regular inspections.

(Image: Getty Images)

The clause avoids potentially damaging headlines by ruling out the need for a monkey amnesty or forced euthanasia of primates already kept as pets.

Shadow Environment Minister Luke Pollard said: “It is astonishing that it is still entirely legal to keep primates as pets, regardless of how endangered or dangerous the animal is.

“Anyone can browse the internet and buy a primate with little or no checks and inspections.

“We know that primates are very intelligent, social animals with complex needs that simply cannot be met in a home environment.

(Image: PCross)

“Labour will ban people from keeping pet primates as part of our plans to bring Britain’s animal welfare laws into the 21st Century.”

An RSPCA spokeswoman said: “We don’t believe that primates should be kept as pets because their needs simply cannot be met in a domestic environment.

“They are intelligent, sentient and highly social animals with complex needs.

“Just like humans, primates can become depressed without adequate stimulation.

(Image: BBC)

“They need a spacious and enriched environment that challenges their intelligent brains and allows for them to behave like primates should, yet we find them kept alone in indoor bird cages in living rooms.

“The RSPCA regularly sees primates that have been kept as pets with behaviour problems and very poor health, especially metabolic bone disease (rickets in humans), as a result of totally inappropriate care.”

In 2016, Greater Manchester was dubbed Britain’s monkey capital after the charity said more monkeys were kept in the area than anywhere else.

The RSPCA received more calls about primates in distress in Greater Manchester than any other part of Britain, with reports animals were being kept as pets in yards, garages and houses.

(Image: Getty)

In 2017, a London thief who kept an exotic monkey in squalid conditions at his one-bedroom council flat was banned indefinitely from having pets.

Zuriel Hutson, 21, was caught with a Marmoset monkey in a small cage during a raid on his Highbury home in October 2016.

The Simian victim was malnourished and dirty, and would have died if she had not been saved, an expert found.

He was banned from keeping animals indefinitely and was ordered to pay a £500 fine and £650 court costs after he was found guilty of animal cruelty, which he denied.

According to a local newspaper report at the time, Hutson refused to tell police the monkeys name.

She was renamed Amy and was said to be living happily at the Monkey World rescue centre in Dorset.