A CAMPAIGN to stop hunting being banned is hotting up.

The Government should listen to the Lords on the Hunting Bill, the Countryside Alliance said this week.

A survey of 1,016 voters asked: "If the House of Commons votes in favour of the Hunting Bill but the House of Lords amends it, do you think the Government should?"

The majority of voters (52pc) said that the Government should heed the House of Lords.

Simon Hart, director of the Campaign for Hunting, said: "The message of this poll could not be clearer. The Government must not facilitate the use of the Parliament Act on the Hunting Bill.

"The Commons has voted to ban hunting on the basis of prejudice and discrimination. We remain confident that the Lords will amend the Bill to reflect principle and evidence, acting in the best interests of animal welfare and rural communities. Their voices should not be ignored".

Meanwhile, following the outcome of a poll held earlier this year, the Alliance has launched a nationwide poster campaign .

Posters have been put up on billboards, farm implements and machinery across the countryside, pointing out that 59pc of the population does not want to see hunting banned.

James Bates, from the Countryside Alliance, said: "We had an action weekend on September 5-6 when all the posters went up to tie in with the scheduled Lords debate to remind the Government and the House of Lords that there is real concern and anger that they are not listening to the voices of people living in rural communities."

In this week's debate at the second reading of the Hunting Bill, Countryside Alliance president, Baroness Ann Mallalieu, called for the House of Lords to return the Bill to the Commons as "a fair and sensible regulation system based on Rural Affairs Minister Alun Michael's structure."

Baroness Mallalieu said that: "Mr Michaels' original Bill, while I argue with some important aspects of it, had the potential in its basic structure to establish a registration and licensing system which, with improvement, could have resulted in fair and lasting legislation.

"That Bill was destroyed in the House of Commons. All the evidence collected by Lord Burns; all the evidence collected by Alun Michael has been tossed aside. Prejudice not principle has been allowed to prevail. This Bill is now a bad one - and the Government knows it."