Blair in firing line over hunting

A worried Tony Blair today faces a critical test on hunting as the Government unveils a "compromise" package that will see hunts reduced to little more than a token.

Rural Affairs Minister Alun Michael was meeting the Prime Minister this morning to try to hammer out the details of a deal that threatens to satisfy neither side.

The proposals, expected to be announced in the Commons later today, will allow foxhunting with dogs to survive only where it can be shown that it is a less cruel method of pest control than shooting or poisoning. That, in practice, would cut back foxhunts to a few upland areas, such as Cumbria and part of Wales.

Ministers acknowledge that it would reduce the current 184 hunts in Britain to a vestige which could be counted on the fingers of one hand. The plans to be announced by Mr Michael will see the Government bringing forward a Bill in the next session of Parliament this autumn.

Mr Michael will also make clear the Government is ready to ram through the proposals in the face of defiance from the Lords, which has consistently opposed an outright ban. He will tell MPs that if the peers block the measure, the Government will use the Parliament Act to ensure that the will of the Commons prevails. That would mean the change would become law late in 2003 or the following year.

The Government risks an outcry from the Countryside Alliance and others in the pro-hunting lobby, who have vowed a huge protest march on London if their traditions are threatened with extinction. But it also looks likely to anger Labour MPs who have warned that nothing less than a total ban will do and who backed that warning with a massive vote in favour of outlawing hunting earlier this week.

Hare-coursing and stag-hunting will vanish under the Government's proposals. And Mr Michael will argue that, given that foxes must be dealt with, in every case he is opting for the least cruel method available.