Superintendent backs campaign to ban trail hunting, accused of bias

Greg Smith, Conservative MP for Buckingham, said after the event: “It is completely unacceptable. We have a longstanding convention, if not rule, in this country that police officers must be completely apolitical.

“We have a law and it is the job of the police to enforce that law, not to stand on stage at a campaign rally. This is clearly political and I have never seen a police officer attempt such a stunt.

“To have confidence in the police, the officer should no longer be responsible for this area.

“How can anyone who engages in perfectly legal towing or drag hunting be confident that they will be treated fairly when the police who are there to enforce the hunting law make such biased statements about it?”

His comments were echoed by James Gray, MP for North Wiltshire, who said: “It is extremely strange behavior to campaign to change the law. Police officers are not allowed to comment on the law, they have to enforce it and if there is a problem it has to be discussed privately with the Home Secretary.

“This is just old-fashioned class struggle”

“The law is perfectly clear and if you break it you will be prosecuted, but to ban a perfectly legal country sport just because some people are breaking the law would be as absurd as closing the M4 because someone was going 100mph. This is just old-fashioned class struggle.

“After commenting on the law in this way, this officer should not be the one enforcing it.”

The NPCC has been contacted for comment.

Coalition members also include Crustacean Compassion, PETA, the Shellfish Network and Save the African Elephants.

Cats Protection said it joined because of the “dangers that hunting poses to resident, stray and feral cats that may be in the area”. Battersea said it supported the campaign because it could not know “what standard of care” the “tens of thousands of dogs involved in hunting activities” receive.

Mr Bonner added: “Although it appears to be largely a cobbled-together coalition of irrelevance, there are some more sensible charities signed up that could very well have signed up by mistake.

“Their involvement will undoubtedly raise eyebrows and cause reputational damage. Especially among those in the rural community who are likely to donate to them, because they don’t expect or appreciate their association with more extremist groups driven by a twisted ideological agenda.”