Speech at the launch of the Campaign for the Countryside

None of us should have to be here.

The farmers here just want to get through the winter after the summer drought.

The horseracing and greyhound trainers here just want to get back to their yards and win races.

The gamekeepers here just want to get home to manage their birds.

The trail hunters here just want to be back with their hounds.

But we’re here because the challenges and threats to the countryside have never been so great.

And they affect us all.

22 years ago, the Labour government drove through a ban on hunting using the Parliament Act.

Later, Tony Blair was to say it was one of the domestic legislative measures he most regretted.

It wasted hours of precious parliamentary time, it saw hundreds of thousands of country people descend onto the streets of London in protest, and it created a lasting resentment in rural communities.

But Tony Blair would not have been so unwise as to take a swing at farming, horse racing, greyhound racing, and shooting at the same time.

Yet that’s exactly what’s happened over the last two years.

We’ve seen the Family Farm Tax which directly attacked the people who put food on our tables and seriously damaged trust between farmers and government.

We’ve seen ill-targeted measures on betting, which started under the previous government, and which have seriously damaged the funding of horseracing – an industry which is a major rural employer.

We’ve seen a commitment to ban trail hunting, the very activity hunts were told to take up, re-opening the wounds of that divisive debate, and with the recent consultation generating more than 90,000 submissions in opposition.

And now we’ve seen unwarranted proposals for shotgun licensing and the regulation of game shooting, a recreation worth billions of pounds, which actively manages millions of hectares for conservation, and which supports tens of thousands of jobs.

Analysis by the Countryside Alliance has revealed that no fewer than 27 damaging policies have been imposed on rural communities since 2024.

So I’m afraid it’s not surprising that our new poll, published today, finds that only 15 per cent – one in seven – of those living in rural communities agree that the Labour Party cares about the people that live and work there.

And that’s a very sad indictment.

What’s driving this clumsy war on the countryside?

I think some of these policies are hapless, almost accidental.  Treasury officials are always trying to get bad ideas to raise money past unwitting ministers – and the Family Farm Tax was a very bad idea indeed.

I don’t think successive ministers wanted to damage racing.  They just didn’t begin to understand the impact their policies would have, or that racing isn’t the source of problem gambling.

At the root of the problem is, I fear, a lack of understanding about the countryside and how it works.

I don’t think Defra ministers have thought through their proposals to license game rearing and shooting.

Because if government wants to licence an activity, it first has to make it illegal.  And for game shooting that crosses the Rubicon.

There was nothing in Labour’s manifesto about this.  And I wonder if the Government realises that it has lit up a sport which is enjoyed by hundreds of thousands of people.

Many of the worst measures we’ve seen are driven by a pernicious animal rights ideology which is very different from animal welfare.

We all want to make sure animals are treated properly.  There will be no one, no-one, who loves their dogs or horses more than the people in this room.

But we face extremist groups which oppose any use of animals in sport.

They’ve already won an outright ban on greyhound racing in Wales, and even in Scotland – where there is no greyhound racing.

That’s performative politics at its most absurd.

The warning for horseracing couldn’t be clearer.  In New Zealand, where greyhound racing has been banned as well, the animal rights lobby have declared that racing will be next.

These illiberal restrictions aren’t based on evidence and they’re wholly disproportionate.  Yet they were voted through.

If politicians think that this very un-British new puritanism will be popular, I believe they will be gravely mistaken.

Because measures like these don’t just anger those directly affected.

They also reveal the politicians who obsess with them to be completely out of step with the public’s priorities.

When asked in our poll to rank the issues that will drive their vote at the next election, the public – unsurprisingly – placed the cost of living, the NHS and immigration at the top.

‘Banning trail hunting and shooting’ were ranked as the least important.

What will people say, when they just want a decent job, an affordable home, a good school for their children, safe streets and healthcare when they need it – and our politicians say, sorry, we’re just too busy re-running the ban on hunting or having a go at your flutter on the Grand National? 

Today, we have a new Prime Minister who is attuned to the need to focus on the things that actually matter to the public.

Who says that he wants a better and more constructive politics.

Who wants to speak for the whole country – which must include the countryside.

Who wants growth in every postcode – one in four of which are rural.

I think Andy Burnham’s ambitions are genuine and laudable.  

And they present an important opportunity for a much-needed course correction in rural policy.

One which engages with the countryside.

Which listens and discusses.

Which doesn’t view rural people as the enemy – because we’re not.

The opportunity is for the Government as much as it is for the countryside.

That same poll also found that over a quarter of rural residents said they would be more likely to vote Labour if the party resets its relationship with those communities. 

Good policy makes good electoral sense.

But there’s more at stake here than a crude calculation of what might be popular or how people in rural areas will vote.

The countryside is part of our national identity and heritage.

Its nature and beauty is enjoyed and valued by millions, not just by those who live and work in it.

Its land provides the water and food which we all need to live.

And at the heart of the countryside there is more than the land itself.

There are people and communities – communities which have remained strong even as our social fabric erodes.  And that’s something which is immeasurably precious.

Gordon Brown has recently spoken powerfully about the “the breakdown of our civic infrastructure”, of the declining membership of community and sports organisations that bind us together.

But go to a day’s shooting and you’ll still see that glue, where the beaters love nothing more than to be part of the day.

Go to a trail hunting meet and you’ll find the foot and car followers for whom a day’s hunting is their passion.

Go to a rural pub and you’ll meet the farm workers who are far from rich, but who have the wealth of working on the land they love.

Go to a race meeting and you’ll see people, young and old, sharing their enjoyment of the sport of kings.

These are good people, and they’re dismayed that their way of life is so under attack.

They are ordinarily quiet people, quietly getting on with their lives.

But now they are riled, and they need our support.

We must speak for them.

I’m incredibly grateful to David Blunkett, Minette Batters and David Cameron for being here, crossing the party divide, and adding their powerful voices to this cause in a way which cannot be ignored.

And I also want to thank all of you who have come here today.

We know that we must stand together, or else see all that we hold most dear picked off, piece by piece.

That is why we are today launching the Campaign for the Countryside.

And I urge everyone – everyone – who cares about these issues, who cares about the countryside, about farming, or racing, or trail hunting, or shooting, or rural jobs, or village pubs, or just the rural way of life – to sign up to the campaign.

From there you can send a message directly to the Prime Minister and to your MP.

It’s a heartfelt message delivered not in confrontation – because it’s right to give this new administration a chance to repair the damage.

But as a genuine request.

The countryside can contribute positively to Britain’s national renewal.

We want to play our part.

But the countryside also deserves respect.

And it must be heard.

And so our simple message to the Prime Minister is this:

It’s time for a rural reset.