COUNCILLORS joined the move to ban hunting after a Labour councillor attacked the "vicious, violent minority" who supported it.

Coun Marcus Johnstone said he had felt the blast of opposition from "the men in red coats" when he voiced his opinion on the issue as Ribble Valley Labour candidate at the General Election.

Michael Foster, the Worcester MP who had introduced the anti blood sports Bill in Parliament, had himself been threatened and even had to move home, Coun Johnstone told Burnley Council's general purposes committee.

The vast majority of people in rural areas, including the Ribble Valley, wanted to get rid of foxhunting, he said.

And he blasted critics who blamed the Government for putting the Bill under threat by refusing to grant it extra time to pass through Parliament.

The Labour Party manifesto had promised a free vote on the issue and that promise would be kept.

He said: "I think it is a bit rich that the Government is getting the blame when those who would stop it is the opposition party.

"If they block it and talk it out, it will not happen. If they don't it will become law."

"We should write to William Hague asking him to discipline his members in the Commons and Lords to stop them preventing this Bill becoming law."

The committee agreed to give its backing to the Wild Mammals Hunting With Dogs Bill, which seeks to ban the use of dogs to hunt foxes, hares, stags and mink, and is due for its second reading in the House of Commons on November 28.

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