Ban on hunting with dogs to be forced in

MPS are set to force through a ban on hunting with dogs in England and Wales today, bringing the government into fresh conflict with hunt supporters in the run-up to the next general election.

The move will break the impasse with the House of Lords, which last night voted by 188 to 79, a majority of 109, in favour of a move to put a registered hunting scheme back in the Hunting Bill.

The environment minister Lord Whitty had appealed in vain before the vote for peers to back down and halt the row which has rumbled on at Westminster for the last seven years.

But the threat to use the Parliament Act to stop peers blocking the will of MPs is almost certain to be acted upon by the Commons Speaker today.

Peers say the bill should not come into effect for three years. The government wants it to come into force in 18 months’ time. Ministers are desperate not to bring it in before the general election. They say the delay is aimed at giving people whose livelihoods depend on hunting time to find new work.

But they will also be determined to avoid the threatened civil disobedience and pictures of hounds being put down during an election campaign.

Some hunt supporters prefer the "kamikaze" option of rejecting any delay at all so a ban would come into force next February, causing problems for the government.

Appealing in vain for the peers to back down, Lord Whitty said MPs would not accept peers’ plans for registered hunting that included deer hunting and coursing for hares.

"However justifiable your position, we are now in a position where your lordships have thrown out the baby with the bathwater and we are in a directly confrontational situation," he said.