Labour peer and KC Ann Mallalieu has issued a direct warning to her party over the new hunting ban (Image: Jonathan Buckmaster)
The Labour Government will drive the final nail into its own coffin if it bans trail hunting and devastates lives in rural communities, a senior member of the party has warned. Baroness Mallalieu, 80, who worked as a top barrister and is now president of the Countryside Alliance, warned Labour that pressing ahead with a ban so soon after pushing people to the brink of suicide with its inheritance tax plans could cost it the election and send voters to Reform UK.
She told the Express: “The reality is that the Labour party cannot win an overall [majority] without rural seats.”
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Sir Keir Starmer’s Government has launched a consultation on how to deliver its manifesto pledge to ban trail hunting, which mimics traditional hunting by having hounds follow a pre-laid animal-based scent. The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has cited concerns that some people have used trail hunting “as a ‘smokescreen’ to facilitate illegal hunting with dogs’.
Baroness Mallalieu warned that a ban will do nothing to improve animal welfare, will hurt the rural economy and increase people’s isolation, and will result in “incalculable” damage to relations between the Government and countryside communities. The KC had hoped that “sense would prevail” and Labour would not press ahead with the policy.
“I think that there are many in the Labour party who very much regret the manifesto commitment,” she said, adding: “And it was done to appease a very vocal minority”.
She said the “craziness” of the “absolutely mad” situation is that a ban on trail hunting will “criminalise the people who obey the law”. The policy is driven, she added, by “hatred of people”.
The baroness, who lives on the edge of Exmoor national park, said: “The irony is, if only they knew the place I live is a deeply deprived area with a lot of people who would dearly love to have a Labour party representing them and doing things which would benefit them. Instead, it gets one damaging piece of legislation after another.”
Baroness Mallalieu combined farming with the law (Image: Jonathan Buckmaster)
She campaigned against Labour’s plans to hike inheritance tax on agricultural land – which have now been watered down – and said she knows “people who would have killed themselves if the changes hadn’t been made”.
In a further warning for the Labour leadership, she said: “I’m afraid Labour has been driving people towards Reform.”
She is worried about the economic hit and job losses areas such as her own will experience if trail hunting is forbidden, adding that people are “desperate to find ways of saving the hounds”.
If the Government presses ahead with a ban, she said: “I’m afraid it will be the final nail in the coffin of a government which has chosen to do the wrong things on too many occasions already.”
A Reform UK spokesperson said: “Not content with attacking family farms, a trail hunt ban would just be a continuation of Labour’s unrelenting assault on rural Britain. This is an authoritarian move that has been dreamt up by clueless ministers without any evidential basis, and would be a hammer blow to jobs and livelihoods of rural communities.”
Shadow Environment Secretary Victoria Atkins accuses Labour of attacking the countryside (Image: Andy Stenning/Daily Express)
Shadow Environment Secretary Victoria Atkins said: “This city-dwelling socialist Government has come for our farms, family businesses, savings, homes, schools, even wood burners. They’re littering the countryside in solar panels whilst having done little on actual littering and fly tipping.
“And whilst we’re all worrying about rising fuel prices and taxes, they’re now coming after the traditional, lawful rural sports of trail hunting and shooting. They are re-arranging the deckchairs on their sinking ship of leftist political failure.
“Having secured painful u-turns from Labour already, we Conservatives will continue to fight for the countryside to protect it against this city-dwelling socialist Government.”
But a Defra spokesperson said: “This Government has made a clear commitment to ban trail hunting. We understand that this is a complex issue and we want to make sure all those with an interest have the opportunity to shape how we bring this forward.
“We recognise that hunting is important to those who enjoy this pursuit and we are listening carefully to concerns. We will ensure that any changes are proportionate and workable, so that we can protect wildlife while ensuring that responsible rural pursuits can continue.”
Starmer issued stern warning over new UK countryside ban – ‘Labour can’t win without us!’
Britain’s countryside has become the centre of a renewed political argument over Labour’s relationship with rural voters, with campaigners warning that proposed restrictions on trail hunting could deepen a divide that has already become politically significant.
The warning comes at a particularly unusual moment for Labour. Keir Starmer is no longer Prime Minister, having resigned earlier in 2026, while Andy Burnham has taken over at Downing Street. Yet many of the rural policies introduced or proposed during the Starmer government remain politically contentious.
Among them is the proposed ban on trail hunting in England and Wales.
The government opened a consultation on the legislation in March 2026, seeking views on how a ban should be implemented. The consultation closed on 18 June, and Defra said in September that it had received 184,000 responses. The department has delayed publication of its response while officials consider the submissions.
For rural campaigners, the issue has become much larger than hunting itself.
A warning from the countryside
The Countryside Alliance has launched a new campaign calling for what it describes as a “rural reset” in the government’s relationship with countryside communities.
At an event in Westminster on September 14, representatives from farming, rural businesses, horseracing, shooting, hunting and angling joined politicians from different political backgrounds to argue that rural communities should have a stronger voice in government policy.
Former Conservative prime minister David Cameron and former Labour home secretary David Blunkett both appeared at the event.
The alliance says 27 government policies introduced or proposed since 2024 have affected rural communities negatively. Its list includes changes to agricultural inheritance-tax relief, employer National Insurance, planning policy, restrictions affecting shooting and the proposed trail-hunting ban.
The organisation’s chief executive, Tim Bonner, has argued that rural voters are asking to be “heard, understood and treated fairly”.
That represents a broader political message than simply opposing one piece of legislation.
The campaign is effectively asking Labour to reconsider how it approaches rural Britain as a whole.
Why trail hunting has become such a flashpoint
Trail hunting is a practice in which hounds follow a pre-laid scent rather than a live fox.
It developed following the Hunting Act 2004, which banned hunting wild mammals with dogs in England and Wales. Supporters of trail hunting argue that it provides a lawful continuation of traditional countryside activities.
Animal-welfare organisations and the government take a different view.
The government has argued that trail hunting can provide a cover for illegal hunting and that the activity creates unacceptable risks to wild and domestic animals. Animal Welfare Minister Sue Hayman said the government intended to fulfil its manifesto commitment to prohibit the practice.
The consultation therefore focused on how such a prohibition could work in practice, including definitions, possible effects on dogs, animal-based scents used for training and potential impacts on businesses and communities.
The disagreement is consequently not simply about whether hunting is popular.
It concerns competing interpretations of animal welfare, rural tradition, policing and the economic and social role of country sports.
The consultation attracted an unusually large response
The scale of the consultation has itself become part of the argument.
Defra says it received 184,000 responses before the consultation closed. The department has said that it needs additional time to analyse the submissions before publishing a summary later in 2026.
That means the government has not yet published its final assessment of the consultation responses.
Claims about how representative the responses are should therefore be treated carefully. Consultation responses are not equivalent to a nationally representative opinion poll: individuals and organisations with strong views are often more likely to participate.
There is nevertheless evidence that the issue has public support as well as opposition.
A YouGov survey published in December 2025 found that 50% of Britons supported a trail-hunting ban, compared with 29% who opposed it. Among people living in rural areas, 50% also supported a ban.
The polling complicates the argument that opposing the ban is synonymous with representing all rural voters.
It also demonstrates why the political debate cannot be reduced to a simple rural-versus-urban divide.
But rural voters have broader concerns
For many countryside communities, the trail-hunting dispute sits alongside a much wider list of economic and social concerns.
Farm profitability, inheritance-tax rules, business rates, labour costs, housing, transport, rural crime and access to services can have a much more direct impact on people’s daily lives.
The government’s own Farming Roadmap 2050, published in June, says agriculture is central to food security and the rural economy. It includes measures such as a simplified Sustainable Farming Incentive, £200 million for the Farming Innovation Programme by 2030 and a £50 million Farming Equipment and Technology Fund.
The government therefore rejects the suggestion that its rural policy consists solely of restrictions.
It has also said that it wants farming businesses to become more profitable, competitive and resilient.
The political challenge is that individual policies can be judged very differently by different rural groups.
A farmer concerned about inheritance tax may have little interest in hunting. A hunt supporter may regard trail hunting as a central part of local culture. A rural pub owner may be more concerned about employment costs and customer numbers.
There is no single “rural voter”.
Labour’s previous rural gains matter
The political sensitivity comes partly from Labour’s performance in rural constituencies at the 2024 general election.
The Countryside Alliance has repeatedly argued that many rural voters gave Labour a chance after the party promised to rebuild its relationship with the countryside.
According to the alliance, Labour subsequently won more than 120 rural seats in 2024, although definitions of “rural” and “semi-rural” constituencies vary between analyses.
The organisation now argues that Labour risks losing that support if rural voters conclude that the government is more interested in regulating countryside activities than supporting rural economies.
That is a political claim rather than a settled electoral fact.
Nevertheless, recent research suggests Labour has a substantial challenge in rural areas.
Farmers Guardian reported in September that only 15% of rural residents surveyed thought the Labour Party cared about people living and working in the countryside. The same research, commissioned for the Countryside Alliance campaign, found that 28% said they would be more likely to vote Labour if the party reset its relationship with rural communities.
Because the research was commissioned for a campaign group, its methodology and interpretation deserve consideration alongside independent polling.
But the figures illustrate the opportunity Labour’s rural critics believe exists.
A political opportunity for Andy Burnham
The argument is now being directed primarily towards Andy Burnham rather than Starmer.
The Countryside Alliance’s September campaign specifically presented the change of prime minister as an opportunity for a reset.
Former Labour minister David Blunkett said rural and urban communities should not be treated as opposing groups. He also linked the campaign to Burnham’s emphasis on “family, community and place”.
That gives the new government a political choice about emphasis.
It can continue with the proposed trail-hunting ban while attempting to demonstrate that wider rural economic concerns are being addressed.
Alternatively, it could alter or delay elements of the programme in response to the consultation and pressure from rural organisations.
The government’s position on the trail-hunting proposal will become clearer once Defra publishes its consultation response.
Reform is also watching the countryside
The rural argument has wider implications because Reform UK has made significant gains in many areas outside Britain’s largest cities.
The party has sought to attract voters concerned about immigration, taxation, regulation and what it describes as excessive government intervention.
Rural dissatisfaction with Labour therefore has the potential to become part of a wider contest involving Labour, Reform and the Conservatives.
But it would be misleading to assume that every rural voter who dislikes a Labour policy will automatically support Reform.
The YouGov trail-hunting research demonstrates why. Reform voters were themselves divided on the proposed ban: 45% supported it while 40% opposed it. Conservatives were more clearly opposed, by 47% to 30%.
The rural electorate is therefore politically diverse.
The bigger issue is trust
Ultimately, the trail-hunting dispute may matter less for the number of people directly involved in the activity than for what it represents.
For campaigners, it is evidence that government does not sufficiently understand rural priorities.
For ministers, it is a manifesto commitment connected to animal welfare and concerns about illegal hunting.
Those two positions can coexist politically, but they create a difficult communication problem.
Labour needs to demonstrate that supporting animal welfare does not mean ignoring farmers, rural businesses or countryside communities. Rural organisations, meanwhile, must persuade voters who do not participate in hunting that their broader concerns are relevant beyond country sports.
The government has already taken steps aimed at rural policy, including its farming profitability measures and its commitment to rural-proofing policies. In July, Labour was also reported to be considering a formal rural impact test for government policies.
That suggests the new government understands that the relationship requires attention.
The warning has become bigger than Starmer
The original warning may have been aimed at Keir Starmer, but the political problem has now moved on.
Andy Burnham inherits a countryside debate shaped by decisions made under the previous Labour government.
The trail-hunting consultation is still being analysed. The government’s final position has not yet been announced, and there is no evidence that the issue alone will determine how rural voters behave at the next election.
What is clearer is that rural organisations want the government to treat countryside policy as a central political issue rather than a collection of individual disputes.
For Labour, the challenge is therefore broader than deciding what to do about trail hunting.
It is about whether the party can maintain support in constituencies where voters have concerns about farming, local services, housing, business costs and rural identity while simultaneously pursuing policies on animal welfare and environmental protection.
The Countryside Alliance has made its position explicit: it wants a reset.
Whether the Burnham government accepts that argument, and how far it changes course, will depend on the consultation evidence, future policy decisions and the response of rural voters themselves.
The debate over the countryside is therefore unlikely to disappear. The trail-hunting proposal has become one of the clearest symbols of a much larger question: how Labour intends to rebuild its relationship with rural Britain after a period of considerable political tension.