Archive - Tuesday, 27 February 2001


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Fox-hunting vote on Commons

A bill to outlaw fox-hunting was due to clear the Commons tonight.

MPs were expected to vote in favour of a total ban when the Bill returned for its third reading.

But it is almost certain to be blocked in the House of Lords - preventing it from clearing Parliament before the expected May election.

After a heated debate at the Bill's second reading in January, MPs voted for a ban by 387 to 174.

They rejected self-regulation of hunting by 399 to 155, and the Middle Way licensing system by 382 to 182.

York's Labour MPs Hugh Bayley, John Grogan, Selby, and Lawrie Quinn, Scarborough and Whitby, as well as Harrogate and Knaresborough Liberal Democrat MP Phil Willis voted for a ban.

Ryedale's Tory MP John Greenway and Anne McIntosh, Vale of York, voted for self-regulation and once this was defeated they backed licensing.

Lord Strathclyde, Conservative leader in the Lords, has already warned there is not enough time to deal with the legislation in this timescale.

But ministers believe the spectacle of unelected peers, many of them Tories, defying the will of the Commons will stir apathetic Labour supporters into voting.

Updated: 11:10 Tuesday, February 27, 2001