ANIMAL rights campaigner and Derby North Labour MP Chris Williamson has warned the Government it would be held to account for its decision to ignore professional scientific advice and insist on a national badger cull.
Mr Williamson spoke out against the cull after Labour proposed a motion calling for it to be halted. This motion was rejected by a majority of MPs.
He said: "This Government decision is inexplicable. There is an abundance of evidence to suggest that if we are serious about tackling bovine TB in badgers then we must utilise the vaccine available since 2010.
"Culling does not work. It causes painful and unnecessary deaths to wild animals but doesn't control diseases.
"We should follow examples set in areas where cattle movements have been restricted and high standards of farming husbandry are observed.''
Mr Williamson said ministers would be judged by the programme's seemingly inevitable failure.
He added: "People feel passionately about this because nobody likes to hear about wild animals being hunted down and shot for no good reason.
"The campaign against this immoral and unjustifiable programme will continue. The Government will be challenged on why it ignored the advice of professionals when the cull is shown to be an unmitigated failure, which I am convinced it will be."
NFU Deputy President Meurig Raymond said the vote settled once and for all the political debate and that the two badger cull pilot areas should continue unhindered.
"The vote is a ringing endorsement of the comprehensive strategy to bear down on TB and rid our countryside of this disease," he said.
