Sustainable grouse shooting secures cross-party backing

A petition to ban driven grouse shooting was roundly rejected in a Westminster Hall debate yesterday, 30 June.

MPs from across the political spectrum spoke in favour of sustainable grouse shooting, with opponents only being able to muster one speaker in favour of the petition.

BASC had held two drop in sessions in parliament to brief MPs on the issues and circulated a brief to MPs of all parties interested in speaking in the debate.

Former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak MP (Conservative, Richmond and Northallerton) said that grouse shooting was of fundamental importance to hardworking people in constituencies such as his, part of our social fabric and “…one of the world’s greatest conservation success stories.”

He said: “Banning grouse shooting would undermine the balanced ecosystem of our countryside. It would not only leave many families poorer but leave our landscape and wildlife poorer too. A ban on grouse shooting would be a policy with no winners. It would be a small section of urban Britain imposing its views on rural Britain and this isn’t right.”

Sam Rushworth MP (Labour, Bishop Auckland) said that he had recently had the pleasure of attending a Let’s Learn Moor event with primary school children from his constituency. He said: “It was a wonderful day out, and I really enjoyed it, and the children learned about the conservation of peat bogs, they learned about all of the various fantastic birds and wildlife that we have.”

He asked firefighters at the event how they would put out a moorland wildfire and was told that the first thing they would do was to call gamekeepers because they are the experts, they know how to manage fires on the moors and are normally the first on scene.

He said if grouse shooting was banned, “…we would lose the jobs, we would lose the schools and we would lose the wildlife.”

Sarah Dyke MP (Liberal Democrat, Glastonbury and Somerton) said it was important to recognise the benefits that well managed, sustainable shooting and moorland management brings.

The debate concluded with Defra Minister Daniel Zeichner MP reiterating the government’s position that it has no plans to ban driven grouse shooting.

Christopher Graffius, BASC executive director of communications and public affairs, said: “This was a useful debate that exposed the weakness of the case put by those extremists who want to ban grouse shooting. Although procedure does not allow for a vote, the debate was won by those who support shooting and conservation by the strength, number and quality of their speeches. BASC welcomes the support for sustainable grouse shooting from both the government and the opposition.”

The debate can be watched back here.

You can also read a transcription of the debate here.