MP supports hunt ban while opponent joins protest

MPs voted to ban hunting with dogs despite mass demonstrations and the House of Commons being disrupted by protesters.

Mr Foster said: "The vote was overwhelmingly in favour of a ban, and it did not surprise me. I was delighted."

The MP believes fox hunting could now be replaced with drag hunting - where the pack chase a trail of aniseed and no animals are killed or land violated.

He said: "This way they can enjoy the benefits of a hunt without the necessity of inflicting cruelty on animals they are not even going to eat."

Mr Foster rubbished claims from hunters that foxes were hunted as a means of keeping the population down, saying: "They kill around four per cent of the fox population, so I would say it's a pretty ineffective means of pest control."

Meanwhile Mark Coote showed his support to members of the East Sussex and Romney Marsh Foxhounds at the protest, which at one point turned ugly, with riot police drafted in.

He said: "There was a rogue element, but the vast majority were good natured country people, who feel they are being ignored by the government."

Mr Coote confirmed that a Conservative government would reverse a foxhunting ban if elected to power.

He said: "The vast majority of Conservatives believe a ban is an infringement of civil liberties and damaging to the countryside."

"The government has had seven years to deal with this issue and is still intent on pursuing this while we have a million patients on the NHS waiting list and soldiers fighting in Iraq.

"This is hardly urgent business, and now the government say a ban will not be introduced for another two years anyway."

Any ban will not come into force until July 2006, enabling people working in hunting to readjust and for dogs to be rehomed.

The Bill will not be debated by The House of Lords until next month.The government plan to use the Parliament Act to push the bill through if rejected.

p Mr Coote is pictured left, with farmers Frank and Rosemary Cooke, from Camber.