Badger cull dismantled from all sides in landmark Parliament debate
The cull is collapsing under its own weight, and it is collapsing because people refused to accept a lie.
Over 102,000 people stood behind Protect the Wild’s call to end the badger cull immediately and adopt a cattle-focused approach to tackling bovine tuberculosis (bTB). That public pressure brought MPs from across the political spectrum into Westminster Hall on 13 October and what unfolded was one of the most revealing debates yet about the future of the cull.
The debate was opened by Irene Campbell MP, who recognised the petition’s origins:
“The petition is titled ‘End the Badger cull and adopt other approaches to bovine TB control’ and was created by Robert Pownall, founder of Protect the Wild.”
From the outset, she made it clear that “the evidence is there for the badger cull to end immediately.”
Campbell also cited damning statistics, that 94% of TB transmission is cow-to-cow, not badger-to-cow, and that new TB herd incidents have fallen by just 1% since culling began in 2013.
The case is clear: after 11 years, over 247,000 badgers killed, and hundreds of millions spent, bTB is still rampant.
A shifting political tide
For perhaps the first time, Parliament heard near-unanimous recognition that the cull has failed.
Across the debate, MPs condemned the cruelty of the cull and the failure of testing systems that let infection persist. Even South West MPs (historically in favour of culling) now focused on testing and biosecurity over killing. Brian May’s campaigning was praised for shifting opinion, while the Gatcombe farm project underscored the government’s wider failures.
“When was the last time you saw a badger sneeze on a cow?”
That cutting line from Cat Eccles (Lab, Stourbridge) summed up the mood.
She tore apart the myth that badgers drive TB spread:
“Sheep, deer and alpacas show far higher incidence of TB than badgers… Fewer than one in ten badgers tests positive… yet we continue to scapegoat this single species.”
Please do watch the 2 minute clip below in which Cat absolutely destroys the justification behind the Badger cull and says in no uncertain terms it must end now.
Rachael Maskell MP (Ind, York Central) also delivered a blistering scientific takedown of the entire cull:
“Half the population of badgers has now been killed, and up to 22.8% were still alive five minutes after being shot.”
“The TB-infested farm became TB-free without killing a single badger, just by removing infected cattle.”
You can watch Rachael’s speech below:
In a striking intervention, Andrew George MP (LD, St Ives), who once supported the 1990s badger trials, admitted the science has moved on:
“Bovine TB is 17 times more likely to spread between cattle than to originate from badgers.”
And Tim Farron MP (LD, Westmorland and Lonsdale) summed up the new consensus perfectly:
“It is ludicrous to outlaw the culling of badgers for scientific purposes yet permit it if developers want it. That is outrageous.” (For context, the proposed Planning and Infrastructure Bill would essentially allow developers to kill Badgers and destroy Badger setts if they’re in the way of their building projects).
Across the debate, MPs spoke of the cruelty inflicted on wildlife and the failure of testing systems that allow infection to persist. Even South West MPs, once staunchly pro-cull, now emphasised testing failures and biosecurity, not the need for more killing.
The Tory “Toolbox” Argument: A Masterclass in Denial
“His Majesty’s Opposition believe that, sadly, badger control needs to be kept in that toolbox.”
Only one MP of the dozen or so that attended the debate really put up a proper fight for badger culling, Conservative vet Dr Neil Hudson MP (Con, Epping Forest). His entire speech revolved around a single word: “toolbox.” He said it six times in a few minutes, as though repeating the metaphor made it make sense.
According to Hudson, badger killing should stay “in the toolbox” until every other measure, testing, vaccination, biosecurity, is “up to speed.” In other words: keep killing badgers until something else works. You can watch the clip below where he spells out the Tory Party’s position that Badger vaccination is the solution alongside more culling (that he claims has been proven to work)
But here’s the problem. Culling isn’t working. The figures cited during the debate show new bovine TB herd incidents have fallen by only about 1% since culling began in 2013. That’s after around 247,000 badgers have been slaughtered. If that’s success, what does failure look like?
Even the Godfray Review, which Dr Neil Hudson MP repeatedly referenced, admitted it is “not statistically possible to isolate the impact of culling.” So when he says we should “follow the evidence,” he’s ignoring the evidence entirely.
Thankfully Liberal Democrat MP Andrew George made sure to call out Neil on his absurd claims as seen in the clip below.
What was even worse is the language. He couldn’t bring himself to say “kill”, “shoot”, or even “cull”. Instead, he talked about “badger control,” the same bloodless spin used for a decade to disguise a blood-soaked policy.
There is no “toolbox.” There is only a Government trying to justify cruelty because it lacks the courage to confront the real problem: the farming system itself.
The Badger Blame Game
One of the most striking contradictions in the debate was how often MPs said that badgers are not to blame for bovine TB, yet still framed badger vaccination as part of the solution. It perfectly summed up the confusion that has dominated this issue for years: even those calling for compassion towards wildlife cannot quite let go of the false idea that badgers are part of the problem.
Alison Hume (Lab, Scarborough and Whitby), for instance, said that the Government should “accelerate the roll-out of vaccination programmes as a long-term and humane solution to bovine TB.” Tim Farron (LD, Westmorland and Lonsdale) called for the Government to “invest heavily in improving delivery, to fund more research into how vaccination can be scaled, and to work with conservationists and farmers to make it viable on the ground.”
Even the Minister, Dame Angela Eagle MP, repeated that “badger vaccination is not about ignoring the role badgers play in spreading TB,” and promised a “new badger vaccination field force” next year.
Every one of these statements carries the same flawed logic. If badgers are not the cause, why are we still talking about vaccinating them? Vaccinating badgers implies that they are a disease risk that must be managed, when the science shows that more than 90% of transmission is between cattle. The focus on wildlife vaccination shifts the blame from the real cause: industrial animal farming and a failed testing system that continually reinfects herds.
It is a comforting illusion for politicians to believe that the answer lies in the woods and hedgerows, not in the barns and slaughterhouses. But the obsession with “treating” badgers, whether by shooting or injecting them, is built on the same false premise: that the problem lies in wildlife rather than the system that exploits animals for profit.
Vaccination may sound more humane than killing, but it still treats badgers as disease carriers whose existence must be controlled for the sake of farming. It makes no moral or scientific sense to interfere with a protected wild species to sustain an industry that should not exist in the first place.
The Hypocrisy from the Minister
When Dame Angela Eagle, the new Labour Minister for Food Security and Rural Affairs, finally spoke, her words revealed the government’s deep contradiction.
She acknowledged that the Godfray Review shows it’s “not statistically possible to isolate the impact of culling.”
Then, barely a minute later, she said the final remaining cull licence would “continue until the end of the season and then there will be an analysis to see how effective it has been.”
That’s the hypocrisy in plain sight.
If it’s impossible to tell whether culling works, why are we still killing badgers “to see if it works”?
This was a textbook case of a government trying to have it both ways, signalling compassion for wildlife while quietly sanctioning more bloodshed.
Her line, “The cull is ending,” may sound reassuring, but it’s hollow when immediately followed by “we’ll wait to see if the final cull has worked.”
The truth is, they don’t need more data, they need more courage.
The Truth No One Dared to Say
Not once in the entire debate did a single MP make the most important point of all: that animal farming itself is the root of this cruelty and suffering. Every word in Westminster was framed around how to “protect farmers” and “safeguard livelihoods,” as though breeding, exploiting, and killing animals for profit were somehow beyond question. The truth is simple. There would be no badger cull if there were no animal farming. There would be no bovine TB if we did not keep millions of cows confined and traded like products.
Credit must go to Rachael Maskell MP who did put it on record that “Further research has shown that intensification of farming increases the risk” of the spread of TB.
Throughout the debate, “rural communities” were repeatedly spoken about as if the term only referred to farmers. Yet there are countless rural citizens who have been emotionally shattered by the sight and sound of badgers being shot in their fields, by the cruelty carried out near their homes, and by the heartbreak of watching wildlife vanish from the countryside. Their voices were not heard in Parliament. Compassionate rural people exist, and their suffering under this policy is just as real.
This entire crisis exists only because society demands cheap meat and a government continues to pour billions in subsidies into keeping that system alive. The debate constantly defended a grotesque industry built on violence and denial. MPs fell over themselves to sound compassionate towards badgers while proudly pledging loyalty to the very system that caused their deaths. The sick, overcrowded, profit-driven state of British farms was never mentioned, yet it is the beating heart of this disease. Until we stop exploiting animals altogether, there will always be new excuses for killing wildlife in their name.
Acknowledging the MPs who spoke up
While we disagree with many of the assumptions that still underpin the debate, we also want to thank every MP who attended and spoke out for badgers. In a Parliament that too often ignores wildlife, their presence and their words mattered. It takes courage to stand against a decade of government dogma, and those who challenged the cull in Westminster have helped bring us closer to ending it for good.
The Debate We Needed and What Comes Next
Despite the Minister’s hedging, and our clear objections to both badger vaccination and the wider silence on animal farming, this debate marked real progress. For the first time, MPs from across parties broadly agreed that the cull must end. They challenged the science, questioned the cost, and condemned the futility of a policy that has slaughtered hundreds of thousands of wild animals while failing to control disease. The tone in Westminster has shifted. It is no longer a question of whether the cull should stop, but how quickly.
Yet the government’s 2038 eradication target remains distant and deliberately vague. The language of “toolboxes” still echoes through Parliament, and most worrying of all, the killing has not yet stopped. At the height of the badger cull there were seventy-three active licences across England. This year, the number has fallen to twenty-one, and by the Minister’s own admission, only one final licence remains. It covers a so-called “low-risk area” where a TB hotspot has appeared. That single licence must not be allowed to become a back door to future culls.
The government says the cull is ending, yet still insists on completing one last season “to see how effective it has been.” That is a contradiction in plain sight. If it is “not statistically possible to isolate the impact of culling,” as the Godfray review itself concluded, then there is no justification for more killing. The final licence should be revoked immediately. Anything less is political cowardice dressed up as science.
Protect the Wild’s petition did not just win a debate. It forced Parliament to confront a truth the government has avoided for over a decade: culling has not worked, is not working, and never will. The fall in TB rates has been negligible, barely one percent after the deaths of more than 247,000 badgers, and yet ministers talk of “reviewing results” as if another round of killing could redeem a failed policy.
This was never about disease control. It is about protecting an intensive animal-farming industry propped up by public subsidies and political fear. Farmers choose to profit from animal exploitation, and governments choose to underwrite it. The debate exposed how normalised that cruelty has become. Every speech was framed around “helping farmers” rather than questioning why such an industry still exists at all. The suffering inside Britain’s farms, the overcrowding, the constant stress, and the breeding for profit, is what drives TB, not the wildlife that lives beside them.
The badger cull is a stain on Britain’s claim to compassion. But this debate proved that public pressure works. The cull is collapsing under its own weight, and it is collapsing because people refused to accept a lie.
Now the task is simple but urgent. We must keep the pressure on. We must ensure that final licence is revoked, that no new ones are ever issued, and that the government’s words are turned into action. The political tide is turning, but the fight is not over until every gun is silenced, every licence is cancelled, and Britain’s badgers are safe for good.
Thank you
Thank you to every single one of you who signed our petition and joined us in the Commons yesterday. Together, we’ve made a real impact, this was another major blow to the future of badger culling in this country, and we should all be proud of that.
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Thank you again.
Rob
Lets hope this is the beginning of the end of this shameful episode. Well done to all involved, Protect the Wild, Betty Badger and Brian May and the Gatcombe farm team to name but a few in dragging this kicking and screaming into the public domain.
Fantastic news. At last, the end might be in sight. Well done to everyone, including Rob and the team.