Hunt supporters urged to throw weight behind Tories
Hunt supporters have been ordered to get out on the streets in marginal seats in the Bristol region to canvass support for the Tories.
A secret hit-list names Bristol East and Wansdyke, set to become North East Somerset, as top priorities for campaigners desperate for a Conservative victory after party leader David Cameron pledged to allow a free vote on overturning the ban on fox hunting.
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Richard Standing, Master of the Mendip Farmers Hunt, has thrown his weight behind Tory candidate Jacob Rees Mogg, whose family's land is used by the hunt.
But Adeela Shafi, standing in Bristol East, sought to distance herself from the campaigners insisting she knew nothing about the hunting lobby's attempts to get her elected.
Pressure group Vote-OK is targeting MPs that are known anti-hunt campaigners and is attempting to mobilise thousands of volunteers.
Mr Standing insisted he could not pressure members of his hunt but would be personally campaigning for the Tories. He told the Evening Post: "Politics is a matter for individuals and I can't put any pressure on anyone. I know Jacob Rees Mogg. I don't live in his seat but I will help him and I will help the candidate in my seat." Labour's Dan Norris, a long-time anti-hunt campaigner, was pelted with eggs and chased out of a village by a mob of hunt supporters in 2005.
The Wansdyke MP said: "the Tories like to talk about change but their desire to reinstate the cruelty of hunting shows what they are really like." Tory Adeela Shafi is standing against Bristol East's Kerry McCarthy, a vegan and well known for campaigning on animal rights issues.
Ms McCarthy said: "I've seen an email response she (Adeela) sent to a constituent a while ago on the topic, saying that she totally supported the Tory pledge to give MPs a free vote on the issue in the new parliament, but she 'would wait and see what her constituents thought' before deciding how to vote.
"My understanding, however, is that Vote-OK have only given their backing to candidates who have pledged to vote for the return of fox-hunting."
2 Comments
by NORMAN BRYANT, horsham West Sussex
Thursday, April 01 2010, 12:29PM
“Oh Steve you are so out of touch, one does not need to be wealthy to go hunting although if one has a few quid it makes it easier to do most things.
If anyone is helping the Conservatives is that wrong, the Labour Party has benifited by many large donations including anti hunt groups who do it for some form of return, by the way do you feel inferior to someone on a horse?”
by Steve, Glastonbury
Wednesday, March 31 2010, 1:19PM
“Well that scuppers Cameron's claim to be the new nicey nicey Tory party.
Still the preserve of the rich, huntin' and shootin' scum and their lackies more like.”