HUNDREDS of hunting hounds face being shot if MPs back a ban on blood sports, hunt leaders warned today.

And the Holcombe Hunt, Lancashire's oldest, warned that one of the main campaigners for the banning of hunting, the RSPCA, would bear the brunt of any ban.

The hunt would expect the charity to find new homes for the hundreds of redundant hounds in Lancashire.

MPs in Parliament today vote on the future of fox hunting.

Leaders of the Holcombe Hunt called for either allowing their sport to continue or creating a new Government-regulated body to oversee their pastime.

But the RSPCA insisted there could be 'no controls on cruelty' and that the only way forward was an all-out ban.

MPs will today take part in three votes on the future of hunting. They will first vote on whether they want all out ban and then on whether they think hunting should be allowed to continue.

A third, or middle, option will then be discussed, whether a new Government-controlled regulatory body should be created which would control hunting and have the power to ban hunts which breach rules.

A Holcombe Hunt spokesman said: "We do not know what will happen today, but we hope that if the MPs go for an all-out ban it will be blocked by the Lords."

When a possible ban was last discussed in Parliament in 2000, hunt master Arnold Greenhalgh said the hunt's hounds would have to be shot.

Today the spokesman said: "A hunt would create a massive problem for us in terms of the hunting hounds. They can't become pets.

"I have been at someone's house when they have tried to look after a hound and they just aren't natural pets."

However, Kevin Hegarty from the RSPCA, said: "It is the responsibility of the owner of the animals to find suitable homes for their animals. We cannot take them all."

Darwen and Rossendale MP Janet Anderson, Burnley's Peter Pike, Hyndburn's Greg Pope, Pendle's Gordon Prentice and Chorley's Lindsay Hoyle are all backing an all-out ban.

Foreign Secretary and Blackburn MP Jack Straw is believed to favour the middle way, while Ribble Valley Tory Nigel Evans is opposed to any ban.