Clash with Commons looms after Lords vote in favour of hunting

THE House of Lords last night set a collision course with the Commons after peers overwhelmingly backed moves to allow hunting with hounds in England and Wales to continue under licence.

The Lords voted by 322 to 72 in favour of an amendment to the Hunting Bill introducing registration for hunts.

Lord Donoughue, the Labour peer who tabled the amendment, said that it represented a "constructive compromise" intended to avert a constitutional clash with the Commons, where MPs favour a total ban.

The government minister Lord Whitty said that while the proposals where "coherent" they may have come too late to prevent the lower house using the Parliament Act to enforce its will.

He said that the Commons had already specifically rejected the registration approach while overwhelmingly supporting the principle of a total ban in a series of free votes.

"It is not usually a good move to send back to your negotiating partners a proposal which has already been overwhelmingly rejected - not unless you wish to precipitate a complete breakdown of relations between the two sides. I put that as a warning," he told peers.

Hunt supporters had earlier been encouraged by comments from Downing Street revealing that Tony Blair still hoped that a compromise solution could be found to end the dispute.

"Let us wait and see what the House of Lords does, but the Prime Minister has not changed his view at any point that it would be better if a compromise is agreed," Mr Blair’s official spokesman told reporters.

The Countryside Alliance, which has led the opposition to a hunting ban, last night welcomed the Lords vote and urged MPs to accept a compromise.