Countryside Alliance urges policy reset after Starmer resigns

The Countryside Alliance has urged whoever follows Sir Keir Starmer as Prime Minister to reset relations with the countryside, after the Prime Minister announced he would step down as Labour leader on 22 June having lost the confidence of his parliamentary party. He will remain Prime Minister until Labour chooses a successor, widely tipped to be Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham.

What is the Alliance asking for?

Although Labour’s 2024 landslide returned more than 120 rural MPs, the Alliance says much of what followed amounted to a “war on the countryside”, citing the family farm tax, higher business rates, plans to restrict game shooting and a proposed trail hunting ban.

Chief executive Tim Bonner said: “This was undoubtedly a hard decision for the Prime Minister to make and we wish him and his family well for the future. The government will soon look very different and there will be plenty of time for ministers to consider a change of course. ‘Change’ does not start with culture war in the countryside and a return to the mistakes of the past. We stand ready to work with the next government to achieve the very best for our countryside.”

The Alliance’s argument is that a large rural intake gave the last government a mandate to work with the countryside rather than against it, and that a change at the top is a chance to take it.

What does this mean for shooting?

Several of the measures the Alliance lists bear directly on shooting and gamekeeping. A Government review of quarry species is already under way, with reviews of gamebird shooting and releasing expected to follow, and Defra’s consultation on banning trail hunting in England and Wales closed on 18 June. A change of leader leaves the direction of all of those uncertain ahead of the autumn.

For certificate holders, the period since the 2024 election has also brought rising firearms licensing fees and a troubled overhaul of the licensing system, adding to a sense in the shooting community that the costs have mounted while little has improved.

Andy Burnham, the frontrunner to succeed Sir Keir, returned to Parliament in a by-election last week. A new leader is expected to be in place before MPs return from the summer recess in September, when the shape of rural and shooting policy under the next Prime Minister should start to become clear.

What happens next

Labour is expected to choose a new leader before Parliament returns in September, at which point the shape of rural and shooting policy under the next Prime Minister should become clearer. The Countryside Alliance says it stands ready to work with whoever takes over.