Call for ministers to make sure hunting trophy ban goes ahead

The government is facing calls to commit to fresh legislation to fulfil a manifesto commitment to ban the import of hunting trophies into Great Britain.

An MP's bill to implement the ban looks all but certain to run out of time before the end of the parliamentary session.

Ministers have said they still support a ban.

But they are now facing calls to promise to use government time to change the law next year.

Every year, hunters from the UK travel abroad, often to southern Africa, and pay thousands of pounds to legally shoot animals, such as lions and elephants.

Under current rules, with the right paperwork, they can then bring trophies, such as stuffed heads or horns, back to the UK.

Banning imports from trophy hunting of endangered animals was a commitment in the 2019 Conservative manifesto.

The measures had been expected in government legislation but ministers instead backed a private members' bill from Conservative MP Henry Smith.

The legislation would stop hunters bringing back body parts of thousands of species, including lions, rhinos, elephants, and polar bears, which have been killed abroad.

It passed the Commons comfortably - but it is currently facing opposition in the Lords which means it is unlikely to pass before the end of the parliamentary session on 7 November. That will mean the law goes back to square one.

Some peers have raised concerns about the impact the legislation could have on tourism to some African countries.

The bill needs to be approved by both the House of Commons and Lords to become law.

Government insiders have now conceded the bill is likely to run out of time.

But they have not yet committed to resurrecting it in the King's Speech, which sets out the legislation the government intends to pursue in the next parliamentary session.

Mr Smith said: "A couple of peers have held it hostage. It's been effectively vetoed by a small handful of unelected people."

He added: "I will be calling for the government to introduce it in the King's Speech."

Claire Bass, from animal welfare campaign group Humane Society International/UK, said: "In sabotaging this bill a tiny minority of Tory peers have defied the government, their party, the House of Commons, and public opinion.

"They have used underhand tactics to wreck it, and delivered an extraordinarily shameless defence of the colonial relic that is trophy hunting."

She added that it would be "an exceptionally weak government that would simply accept this betrayal and abandon its manifesto commitment" and called for the legislation to be brought back as a government bill.

Labour's shadow environmental secretary, Steve Reed, said: "We must stop the selfish trophy hunters who want to slaughter then display endangered animals' body parts for their own perverse self-gratification.

"The Conservative government must stop siding with these killers.

"If they refuse to act, they will be complicit in the slaughter as they break yet another pre-election promise. The next Labour government will do the right thing and ban the sickening import of these trophies."

South Africa, Namibia, Tanzania and Zambia have all expressed concerns through their high commissioners, arguing the proposed law "will undermine revenue models which provide incentives to local communities in our countries to maintain wildlife habitats and protect animals from poaching".

Other critics of the proposed ban have argued that profits from hunting are used to pay for conservation projects in African countries and can ultimately help to protect endangered species.

However, animal welfare charities have rejected this, claiming that hardly any of the revenues from trophy hunting ever reach local communities.

Biodiversity Minister Trudy Harrison said: "I am disappointed that despite the overwhelming support from MPs and the public, the Hunting Trophies Bill failed to progress in the House of Lords.

"We will continue working to deliver this important manifesto commitment."