The controversial badger cull may be rolled out across the whole of England under proposals announced by Michael Gove yesterday.

The Government has launched a consultation on whether to remove a cap which limits the number of new areas of the country where killing the animal is permitted.

The cull began in pilot areas in parts of Gloucestershire and Somerset in October 2013 in an attempt to control the spread of bovine tuberculosis, which devastates cattle stock, and it now takes place in 20 areas.

In a letter to the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, Mr Gove said emerging evidence from two of the zones indicate that incidence of the disease is decreasing and that “further steps” now need to be considered because “none of us wants to be culling badgers forever”.

It comes days after Labour said badger culling should be banned, as well as figures in December revealing that nearly 20,000 badgers had been shot in the previous three months, more than the tally from the previous four years.

The consultation, which runs until April 15, also considers whether to allow badger culling even in parts of the country deemed to be at low risk from bovine TB.