Tory party leadership hopeful says he is against ban as bloodsport is our ‘heritage’

Jeremy Hunt has announced he would seek to repeal the ban on foxhunting, although he stopped short of guaranteeing he would legalise the bloodsport.

In an interview with the Telegraph’s Brexit podcast, the Tory leadership contender argued that foxhunting was part of the countryside’s “heritage” and revealed he had always been against the 2004 ban, despite not hunting himself.

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“As soon as there was a majority of parliament that would be likely to repeal the foxhunting ban, then I would support a vote in parliament,” he said. “I would vote to repeal the ban on foxhunting.

“I don’t hunt myself. It’s not particularly my thing … [but] I think we have to recognise that, in terms of the balance of the countryside, it’s part of our heritage. So personally I’m happy for people to do it.”

As mayor of London, leadership frontrunner Boris Johnson suggested introducing hunting in the capital after his cat was attacked by what he believed to be a fox. “This will cause massive unpopularity but I don’t care: I’m not against foxhunting,” he said at the time. However, it was unclear whether he would match Hunt’s declaration.

His opponent’s move will be seen as an attempt to attract votes from Tory members in rural areas as ballot papers for the Conservative leadership contest begin to be sent to the party membership.

It comes after Theresa May reportedly forced a free vote pledge on the issue into the party’s 2017 manifesto, telling a campaign event she has “always been in favour of foxhunting”. However, she eventually dropped the plan after the Conservatives lost their majority in the general election, having recognised there was a “clear message” against it from the public.

Conversely, the Labour party pledged last year to strengthen the Hunting Act in government and abolish legal loopholes that campaigners say enable the sport to effectively continue under the pretence of trail hunting.

On Wednesday evening the Labour party chairman, Ian Lavery, said: “This Tory leadership race is going from bad to worse. We’ve had Johnson’s tax cuts for the wealthy, a race to the bottom on no-deal Brexit, and now a pledge to bring back this barbaric practice that Labour had proudly banned.”

Hunt also said in an article for the Telegraph that he was better placed than his rival to win an election against Labour, claiming its leader, Jeremy Corbyn, regarded Britain as “a force for evil in the world” and was the “most anti-British leader this country has ever seen”.

He used the article to promise to give his rival Johnson a “very important cabinet job” if he prevails in the Conservative party’s leadership election, in an apparent effort to unite the party. He went on to say MPs might have to cancel their summer holidays in order to pass laws that would allow the UK to leave the European Union without a deal in October, if he became prime minister.