PENDLE MP Gordon Prentice is likely to face huge pressure at the next General Election because of his vociferous support for the ban on hunting.

The pro-hunting lobby has revealed plans to target a 'hit-list' of 37 MPs who supported last week's ban, a list likely to include Mr Prentice.

An out-spoken critic of hunting both for foxes and hares and Mr Prentice's marginal constituency means he will be seen as a target.

Mr Prentice won the seat for Labour with a majority of just over 4,000 at the last General Election and the Tories need a swing of just five per cent to regain control.

Fox-hunting supporters are preparing a campaign to overturn the ban, which will include a legal challenge to the Parliament Act used to push the legislation through. Plans include defying the law, civil disobedience and the targeting of marginal MPs. The Countryside Alliance has lodged the first in a series of legal challenges at the High Court, claiming that the 1949 Parliament Act was never legal. It will also try to use the Human Rights Act by claiming that it breaches their civil rights.

Michael Bannister, joint master of Pendle Forest and Craven Hunt, which covers an area of Lancashire around Gisburn and Gargrave in North Yorkshire, said Mr Prentice was likely to face a backlash from rural constituents.

He added: "The Government has made a huge mistake in going against the countryside. This is not about animal welfare as research has shown hunting is the least cruel way of getting rid of a fox.

"Mr Prentice is likely to come under a huge amount of pressure because of the stand he has taken, and rightly so."