Defiant Lords reject ban on fox hunting

By 188 to 79, a majority 109, the Lords backed a move by Baroness Mallalieu to put a licensed hunting scheme back in the Hunting Bill.

With MPs and peers unable to resolve their differences over the issue, the Parliament Act looked certain to be triggered to force a hunting ban through.

Environment Minister Lord Whitty appealed in vain for peers to back down and halt the row, which has rumbled on at Westminster for the past seven years.

With one day of the parliamentary session remaining, time is running out for the pro-hunt lobby.

Lord Whitty said MPs would not accept peers' plans for registered hunting, which included deer hunting and hare coursing.

"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 warned of the Parliament Act being automatically triggered "if we in effect reject the Commons disagreements with this House's last position".

Labour's Lady Mallalieu, Countryside Alliance president, called on the Lords to re-impose a hunting registration system.

She described the Bill as "rank bad", adding: "Its foundations are naked prejudice and wilful ignorance. It is without rationality and without principle.

"It destroys jobs, loses people their homes, divides the communities and the nation, causes economic damage to the most fragile rural economies without compensation and has unquestionably adverse animal welfare implications - not just to the quarry species but to the 20,000 hounds and countless horses too."

Former Labour chief whip in the Lords, Lord Graham of Edmonton, praised MPs for having the courage to stand by their convictions in imposing a total ban last night.

Labour peer Lord Hoyle said: "It's not about hunting animals - it's about the constitution and an unelected House challenging an elected House."

Peers voted to delay licensed hunting until 2007.