BLAIR WANTED TO BACK DOWN ON HUNTING PLEDGE

Matt Chorley
Western Morning News

Tony Blair tried to find a "way out" of his pledge to ban foxhunting because he "didn't instinctively feel" it was right, according to the diaries of his media chief Alastair Campbell.The memoirs of nine years as one of the Prime Minister's closest advisers reveal Mr Blair spent two years trying to avoid fulfilling his promise without invoking the anger of his own MPs.

The PM "did not feel comfortable" about the proceeding with the ban and at one stage even hoped the House of Lords would scupper the plan altogether, according to The Blair Years.

A picture emerges of division at the top of the Labour Party over the issue - with key ally and Cabinet Minister Peter Mandelson launching a "big defence" of foxhunting while the chief whip Hilary Armstrong warned if the ban did not proceed, Labour rebels would throw out measures to introduce foundation hospitals.

Last night, Westcountry huntsmen and women said the revelations showed Mr Blair was forced into the move by left-wing urban Labour MPs with a grudge against rural areas.

Diana Scott, joint master of Devon and Somerset Staghounds, said it suggested he was manipulated by a minority pressure group. "He didn't stand up for his own mind and it has been proven to be the most appalling law because nobody understands the workings of it. He must live to regret it."

John Lucas, spokesman for Tiverton Staghounds, said: "He didn't even turn up to vote on the Bill on one or two occasions."

He said he thought Mr Blair needed to appease his left-wing MPs."I think he said things that he regretted. It was pushed by a group of left-wing MPs who did it on bigotry and prejudice not animal welfare."

The 1997 Labour Party manifesto promised a free vote in Parliament on whether hunting with hounds should be banned but was not made a priority by the new Blair Government.

But two years later, when Mr Blair was bounced into promising a new Bill on the subject late at night on BBC One's Question Time, it sparked a furore that took on a life of its own.

In his diaries, published yesterday, Mr Campbell recalls that in an otherwise staid meeting on September 8, 1999, Mr Mandelson "launched into a big defence of foxhunting".

The protest that greeted the PM at the Labour conference days later piled on the pressure. Mr Blair and Mr Campbell then tried to make light of the matter. "The hunt demo was going big and we agreed he should start the speech by saying tally-ho," Mr Campbell wrote.

Within months, however, Mr Blair was repeatedly voicing his disquiet.

In early January 2001, Mr Campbell wrote: "On hunting, TB was still trying to think of a way out."

It was even being suggested that the Bill could be left to be blocked by the House of Lords and "we could then put in a middle way in the manifesto for the next Parliament".

Mr Campbell says the next day "TB was still banging on about hunting". "The Tories thought he was being cunning. In fact, he was agonising because he did not feel comfortable about his position."

The conflict between his convictions and the will of his party was clear."

You could argue that we would never win the support of most of those who opposed our position but that we would lose a stack of support if he tried to shift the position back."

However, Mr Blair was clearly rattled by the mood in his party, illustrated by the comments of senior MP Gerald Kaufman in March 2002.

He told Mr Campbell "he would never see himself as a loyal TB supporter again if we back-tracked on this. I said I never realised he was so passionate about it and he said he was, adding: 'If the Tony who stood up to Milosevic and bin Laden can't stand up to the Countryside Alliance, I can't support him."

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