New Scottish National party MPs are being lobbied by voters in the rest of the UK who are promising to holiday in Scotland and buy more whisky if they vote against the repeal of the hunting ban.

Traditionally, SNP MPs do not vote on legislation that only affects England and Wales, but anti-foxhunting groups are encouraging the party to gives its members a free vote on the issue as a matter of conscience.

Some Tory MPs are pushing for a vote on foxhunting to be held within the next few months after a repeal of Labour’s 2004 Hunting Act was promised in the party’s manifesto.

The SNP leader, Nicola Sturgeon, hinted last weekend that the party may be re-considering its position after she was pressed about it on Twitter, saying: “The SNP has not yet taken decision on this. We certainly don’t agree with repealing ban.”



@The_Extractor_ the SNP has not yet taken decision on this. We certainly don't agree with repealing ban — Nicola Sturgeon (@NicolaSturgeon) May 16, 2015

Meanwhile, voters from the rest of the UK appear to be responding to Sturgeon’s pre-election overtures when she repeatedly said that the SNP would be a friend to progressives of whatever political stripe and wherever they lived.

Calum Kerr, the SNP’s freshly appointed environment and rural affairs spokesman, describes a “steady flow” of individuals lobbying him on foxhunting since he was elected, with “a reasonable number of emails from south of the border, some of them even offering to come to Scotland for their holidays if we support the ban”.

Tommy Sheppard, the newly elected SNP MP for Edinburgh East, has likewise noted the spike.

“It’s dwarfing all the other issues in my inbox at the moment,” says Sheppard, who estimates that about a third of hunting-related communications are coming from the rest of the UK.

“Some of them phrase it as ‘doing a deal’,” adds Sheppard, referring to the offers to holiday in the country or buy Scottish products in return for a vote against repeal.



He notes: “There’s a lot more variation in the emails than when people are writing with a standard template provided by [campaigning website] 38 Degrees, for example. It does seem to be more organic.”

Prominent campaigners against cruel sports, such as Peta and the League Against Cruel Sports, have not asked their membership to specifically target Scottish MPs, although the league has made a direct approach to the SNP leader at Westminster, Angus Robertson, and is calling for SNP MPs to be given a free vote on the issue.

But Stop the Cull, a group that normally campaigns on badger welfare, is currently advising its 42,000-strong Facebook group: “We are running a mini-campaign asking our supporters to please contact the SNP MPs who are in Westminster, to tell them – with the aim of getting them to stop the Tories from repealing the ban – that you are pledging to support Scotland by holidaying there and/or by buying Scottish products.”

It offers a shareable post featuring brands of Scotch whisky and the words “I pledge to buy Scottish.”



Robbie Marsland, of the League Against Cruel Sports Scotland, said that his organisation is considering doing likewise and asking its supporters to contact SNP MPs directly, “but only if we felt it could make a positive contribution to what we understand is a tricky position for the SNP”.



As for the current spate of lobbying, Marsland said: “The animal welfare movement across the UK is enormous and it really runs itself.”

With a majority of just 12, it would only take a handful of Tory rebels for the repeal to be blocked with the help of Labour and the SNP. Marsland estimates that as many as 30 Tory MPs could vote against the repeal.