League boss quits, saying it is ‘empty vessel of Labour’

The CEO of the League Against Cruel Sports (LACS) has stood down over Labour’s “betrayal” on its pledge to ban hunting. 

Former Army officer Andy Knott claims Labour promised to close “all the loopholes” in hunting laws, but its manifesto contains a pledge to ban only trail-hunting, which he described as a “smokescreen”. 

Mr Knott also claimed that the League, which was instrumental in bringing about the original hunting ban under Tony Blair, is now an “empty vessel of the Labour Party”. 

He is to launch legal action against LACS, and its former chairman and prospective Labour MP Dan Norris, claiming they attempted to silence his criticism of the “U-turn”. 

A Labour spokesman said it was “absolute nonsense” that there has any U-turn on the party’s hunting pledges and reaffirmed its commitment to “end trail-hunting, which is used as a smokescreen for the illegal hunting”. 

What Mr Knott described as a “sellout” was welcomed by the Countryside Alliance, whose CEO Tim Bonner commented: “It is disappointing that Labour is still in pursuit of the hunting community, but in rowing back from a more extreme position, it has at least heeded some of our warnings.”