Jeremy Hunt would move to see the ban on fox hunting reversed if he becomes prime minister - as his Conservative leadership rival Boris Johnson pledged to put 20,000 more police officers on the streets over three years.

Mr Hunt said a promise of a parliamentary vote on whether to lift the ban on fox hunting in England and Wales would be in the next Tory manifesto if he wins the race for Number 10.

Describing fox hunting as "part of the countryside" and "part of our heritage", Mr Hunt told the Daily Telegraph: "I'm happy for people to do it."

The cabinet minister added that he doesn't hunt himself and that "it's not particularly my thing" but revealed he would support repealing the ban, if there was a vote.

"As soon as there was a majority in parliament that would be likely to repeal the fox hunting ban then I would support a vote in parliament," he said.


Mr Hunt later played down the significance of his comments, claiming a vote on fox hunting "wouldn't be my priority as prime minister and that he was "just restating" the position of the Conservative manifesto from the 2017 general election.

Theresa May has previously admitted the pledge on fox hunting was among a number of issues that left voters "concerned" at the last general election, which saw the Tories lose their majority.

Image: Mr Hunt said the promise of a vote on reversing the fox hunting ban would be in the next Tory manifesto if he wins

Asked to expand on his comments, Mr Hunt told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "The law is not going to change on fox hunting, there isn't a majority in the House of Commons and I don't see there ever being one.

"I was just restating the position in our manifesto from 2017 that there should be a free vote, if it ever looked like that majority would change."

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Mr Hunt refused to state whether he believed fox hunting is cruel or not, only commenting that his "view is a matter of public record".

He added: "This is not something I will seek to change as prime minister."

Labour's shadow environment secretary Sue Hayman said: "It is incredible and shocking that Jeremy Hunt, who aspires to be the next prime minister, can not bring himself to even acknowledge the barbaric cruelty of fox hunting."

Image: Mr Johnson says the public want more police on the streets

It came as Mr Johnson, the Tory leadership favourite, said he will swell the police service to more than 140,000 officers by mid-2022 and wants to use £1.1bn of the £26bn so-called "headroom" reserves put aside by Chancellor Philip Hammond.

The headroom is the difference between the limit Mr Hammond set for the Budget deficit next year and how big the Office for Budget Responsibility thinks it will be.

The chancellor warned Mr Johnson and Mr Hunt that a no-deal Brexit would mean the headroom money would have to be used on dealing with the aftermath of withdrawal from the EU, not on spending pledges.

Mr Johnson has said the boost in police numbers would focus on rural areas which have seen the biggest reductions in police funding in recent years.

During a visit to the Thames Valley Police training centre in Berkshire, he said: "What we are saying is that we are going to use some of the existing headroom, quite a small amount, about £1.1bn, to put more police officers out on the street and I think that is what the public want."

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He refused to admit that Conservative budget cuts that saw an an 18% reduction in the size of the total police workforce, between March 2010 and March 2018, were a mistake.

However, he appeared to suggest that maybe the cuts had gone too far.

"I think the job of the politician sometimes is to say 'actually, no, we want to make sure we keep the numbers high', and we keep visible frontline policing and we keep a safer neighbourhood team in every ward and we keep crime coming down," he said.

Both Mr Johnson and Mr Hunt have made a series of promises on tax cuts and public spending as they try to woo Conservative Party members in the race for the leadership.

Mr Johnson has said he will spend extra £4.6bn a year on education by 2022-23, as well as cutting income tax, stamp duty and national insurance contributions and giving public sector workers a pay rise.

Mr Hunt says he will raise defence spending, cut corporation tax, increase the thresholds for national insurance contributions and cut interest on student loans.