Backbench Business — Badger Cull — 13 Mar 2014 at 16:56

The majority of MPs voted to call on the Government to stop the current badger culls.

The text of the motion approved by the majority of MPs was:

  • That this House
  • believes that the pilot badger culls in Gloucestershire and Somerset have decisively failed against the criteria set out by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in guidance to Natural England for licensing of the culls, which stipulated that 70 per cent of the badger population should be culled within a six-week period;
  • notes that the costs of policing, additional implementation and monitoring, and the resort to more expensive cage-and-trap methods over an extended period have substantially increased the cost of the culls, and strengthened the financial case for vaccination;
  • regrets that the decision to extend the original culls has not been subject to any debate or vote in Parliament;
  • further regrets that the Independent Expert Panel will only assess the humaneness, safety and effectiveness of the original six-week period and not the extended cull period; and
  • urges the Government to halt the existing culls and granting of any further licences, pending development of alternative strategies to eradicate bovine TB and promote a healthy badger population.

During the debate Bill Wiggin MP (North Herefordshire, Conservative) stated[1]:

  • On a point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker. As DEFRA has not released its report, it would be demeaning to the House to have a Division on this issue.

It has been reported[2] that some MPs did not participate in the vote on the grounds a report on the effectiveness of culling had not been published, so the MPs were not sufficiently informed to vote.

Debate in Parliament | Source |

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Party Summary

Votes by party, red entries are votes against the majority for that party.

What is Tell? '+1 tell' means that in addition one member of that party was a teller for that division lobby.

What are Boths? An MP can vote both aye and no in the same division. The boths page explains this.

What is Turnout? This is measured against the total membership of the party at the time of the vote.

PartyMajority (Aye)Minority (No)BothTurnout
Con18 106.2%
Green1 00100.0%
Lab193 (+2 tell) 0 (+2 tell)076.4%
LDem7 0012.5%
Total:219 1036.1%

Rebel Voters - sorted by party

MPs for which their vote in this division differed from the majority vote of their party. You can see all votes in this division, or every eligible MP who could have voted in this division

Sort by: Name | Constituency | Party | Vote

NameConstituencyPartyVote
Philip HolloboneKetteringCon (front bench)no
Alan CampbellTynemouthLab (minister)tellno
David HamiltonMidlothianLab (minister)tellno

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