EXCLUSIVE: Labour set to wage war on Badgers?
EXCLUSIVE: Labour set to wage war on Badgers?
A new Daniel Zeichner message to Protect the Wild suggests Labour will implement Sunak’s ‘kill all the badgers’ plan.
A new Daniel Zeichner message to Protect the Wild suggests Labour will implement Sunak’s ‘kill all the badgers’ plan.
On Friday, 23rd August, ahead of the Save Me Trust documentary exposing systemic failure in the English cattle testing system, a new Defra communication arrived at Protect the Wild (PTW). After probing by PTW writers, Minister for Food Security and Rural Affairs Daniel Zeichner, changed his general message on the future of badger culling.
Reasserting initially that “I am clear that we will beat bTB and end the cull once and for all, as we committed to doing in our manifesto”, Zeichner went on to make troubling changes to previous statements, with reference to bovine TB ‘hotspots’. This was the key term used in the March 14th ‘sham’ Defra Consultation on the future of badger culling policy.
The Consultation tried to make a case for rolling out an approach that aims to kill not 70% of badgers as original policy stated, but 100% of badgers. It is based on what was called Low Risk Area culling but now has the new name of ‘targeted culling’ (previously also referred to as ‘epidemioloigcal culling)’.
The change of tone in Zeichner’s message starts with the sinister statement regarding the ‘honouring’ of previous commitments to the National Farming Union. What these are exactly is obscure, but it may relate to a deal done by Labour in 2023 that saw the Party stay relatively silent on the issue in the run up to this year’s July general election.
The same message was given when Zeichner overruled Labour’s manifesto pledge to end culling. On coming into power he allowed badger culling until early 2026 under licences reauthorized in mid-May this year (ie under the previous Conservative government). Those licenses could easily have been - and should have been - revoked. Not doing so appeared to indicate the start of Labour’s manifesto pledge u-turn.
Zeichner’s statement
In his message to PTW, Zeichner said:
“While we need to honour previous commitments made to the farming sector and manage TB hotspots where vaccination cannot be used, I will be working at pace and in partnership with farmers, vets, conservationists and scientists to bring step change to build an ambitious eradication package that protects both livelihoods and wildlife and stamps out this awful disease.”
The key phrase here is “manage TB hotspots where vaccination cannot be used”.
He is referring here to badger vaccination. Cattle vaccination to lower disease burden in cows is avoided because as long ago as 2012 the government stated that “If cattle were vaccinated using a vaccine that is not licensed by the EU, Britain would no longer be able to export beef or dairy products, at an estimated cost to the industry of £2.2bn.” We also know that Defra went all out on 6th August to promote results of a tiny badger vaccination pilot project in Cornwall, using the Science Media Centre to promote it – something they do when looking to promote and push policy-based science.
It’s the word ‘hotspots’ that rings alarm bells though. It implies that the Rishi Sunak hotspot policy demanded by the NFU and promoted by former Conservative Defra minister Steve Barclay in March is again on the table with its ‘56% benefit claim’, deception that is currently subject to a High Court challenge supported by the Badger Crowd and Protect the Wild.
On Tuesday of next week (27 August) Defra will have to reveal whether or not they are to defend the way in which Barclay presented the ‘facts’ to the public. Did he and Defra mislead the public about the science of the decline of herd TB breakdown incidence? That decline was attributed to cattle testing by the most recent peer-reviewed science, but instead Barclay pushed an Animal and Plant Health Agency in-house staff analysis which strongly appeared to focus on badger culling without proper reference in the headline to what was being done to manage bovine TB control across the board.
It appears that Defra have now shaped up to defend the original Tory plans, and will bring out the March Consultation response rapidly, possibly immediately or in early September.
All the signs are that this response will be to push ahead with 100% culling of badgers over areas of similar size to the culls that have killed approaching 250,000 badgers over the last decade. That would mean another 250,000 badgers killed by 2034, because the so-called hotspot areas are huge and full of badgers. The Ministers might not have been told this.
The authorization of a new cull area based upon Cumbria Hotspot Area 29, as indicated by Natural England last Thursday, signals that hard line approach and was demanded by the NFU. Yet it flies in the face of detailed independent scientific reporting in 2023 and 2024 showing the Low Risk Area pilot, also in Cumbria, was a failure: culling started after intensive cattle measures had already dealt with the spread of disease from imported infected cattle with a residue of chronic farms re-infecting themselves.
Why is this happening?
This seems to be happening partly because of bad advice and partly because of bad science.
Zeichner has received advice over the last year or so from Sir Charles Godfray. He is the Oxford academic who played a substantive role in the Randomised Badger Culling Trial (RBCT) statistical evaluation, which went on to form badger culling policy, and is keen to try to uphold the (now redundant) science that emanated out of Oxford and Imperial College Universities. Newly published science has shown the older RBCT models to be superficial and newer ones can be argued either way depending on which statistical model you choose – reflecting the weakness of the data from just ten comparison areas.
It’s not just Godfray. John Krebs, Christl Donnelly and Rosie Woodroffe (Oxford academics now or in the past, also), all appear to be trying to breathe life back into the RBCT corpse. Their actions are the basis for keeping badger culling going with the added distraction of badger vaccination. They are giving DEFRA Chief Veterinary Officer Christine Middlemiss, who is not a research scientist, the tools she needs to misinform the Labour leadership on veterinary need.
Street-badger protests have steadily grown in Oxford since summer 2023
A scandal
The Labour Party stated that the current badger cull policy was ‘ineffective’ in their election manifesto. Presumably as relevant Shadow Ministers both Reed and Zeichner agreed. All the signs now are that they are being played by Defra staff and the NFU to continue with that same policy. Doing so will perpetuate huge and futile public expenditure that actually maintains the disease in the UK livestock industry.
This is scandalous, especially in the context of Brian May’s exposé of the farmers plight in the documentary shown on BBC Two last week. Secretary of State Steve Reed needs to slam on the brakes and think again right now, or he will embark on perpetuating a foolish and cripplingly damaging policy, that hurts farmers, cows and badgers and pisses more £ Billions of public money away. Such a decision would lack truth, be bad for working people, fly in the face of economic common sense, and would be bad for the Country – all of which are Keir Starmer’s watchwords.
Your Government, lead by industry? We will find out on Tuesday as the High Court process unwinds...
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Horrified, disgusted, heartbroken and frustrated. Will continue to support you with all your efforts to try to stop this. Am astounded at the ignorance of MP’s, more so at my naive hope this government would be any different to the last administration. 😓
In my opinon the culls have always been motivated by a desire to save farmers the investment required to clean up their farms. It is far cheaper to have badgers slaughtered with the tax payer footing the bill. I am appalled and broken hearted that this government are back tracking on their promise to support our wildlife inspite of what is now known about TB. Unforgivable. I live in West Somerset and haven't seen a badger or open sett for years - and this is not a cull zone - this appalling stance gives farmers anywhere the green light to slaughter anything they feel might compromise their livelihoods - facts don't come into it at all. At the beginning of this appalling cull roll out I remember telling a young farmer that slurry contained the answer to cattle to cattle transmission - he laughed at me - his farm cleared out all the badgers in his area. I will just add that recently I have seen a local latrine - the first one for years. In spite of having three farms within half a mile of it. I'm keeping my fingers crossed and my eye on its location.