Hunting Trophies (Import Prohibition) Bill

Ruth Jones Excerpts

Friday 25th November 2022 Commons Chamber

[Ruth Jones (Newport West) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Cities of London and Westminster (Nickie Aiken).

Today is a strange day—sitting Fridays are always strange—but it is good to be with colleagues to contribute to this important debate. I thank the hon. Member for Crawley (Henry Smith) on behalf of Opposition Members. I pay tribute to him for his tenacity in getting the Hunting Trophies (Import Prohibition) Bill to Second Reading. I assure him that he has the Opposition’s support.

Like many of my constituents in Newport West, and thousands of others across the country, I am disgusted by the cruel, damaging and outdated practice of trophy hunting. Tens of thousands of animals are killed each year, purely for fun, so that people can take photos, then cut off a body part and bring it home as a souvenir. Trophy hunters seek out the largest, strongest and rarest animals for bragging rights, as the hon. Gentleman said.

Since trophy hunting rose to prominence in the days of empire and colonialism, there have been catastrophic declines in populations of some of the world’s most magnificent animals, including elephants, lions, rhinos and giraffes. Let us not forget the appalling practice, which was mentioned earlier, of canned hunting, where wild animals are bred in captivity specifically to be hunted and shot in a small, fenced area, so that any idiot could kill them. Our United Kingdom has a right to decide what can legally be brought into the country. The overwhelming majority of the British public support a ban on the import of hunting trophies, so today we are here to ensure that British involvement in this grotesque industry comes to an end once and for all.

As we have heard clearly today, this is not a party political issue. A commitment to ban the import of hunting trophies appeared in both the Labour and Conservative party manifestos in 2019, in addition to being included in numerous Queen’s Speeches and the 2021 Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs action plan for animal welfare. It is now time to deliver on those commitments and support legislation to ensure that the import and export of hunting trophies from endangered and threatened species is banned once and for all. We can easily lead the world in animal welfare, if we want it hard enough, and I look forward to working with the Minister and all relevant parties to ensure that we get this done.