REVEALED: Government discusses badger cull with farming lobbyists in off-the-record meetings

Freedom of Information revelations on the badger cull show that the Labour government is doing little to earn the trust of the British people

Following Labour's general election victory in 2024, Keir Starmer said "the fight for trust is the battle that defines our political era." However, new Freedom of Information revelations related to the badger cull show that his government is doing little in practice to earn the trust of the British people.

Protect the Wild submitted a Freedom of Information request to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) in early January. We asked for information on meetings between ministers and representatives of the farming industry in which the badger cull was discussed since the Labour government took office.

In response to the request, DEFRA confirmed that the badger cull was a topic of discussion during three ministerial meetings with representatives of the farming industry that occurred between July 2024 and early January. However, the department did not provide the minutes of those meetings, nor the names of officials who were present, as requested. DEFRA said it could not provide these details because "no formal minutes were taken" at the meetings.

In other words, the meetings were effectively off the record. This means that whatever was said about the badger cull in those discussions between public servants and industry players will remain hidden from public view and scrutiny.

Protect the Wild also asked DEFRA for the list of farmers, vets, scientists, and conservationists, that it has engaged to co-design its new bovine tuberculosis (bTB) eradication strategy. This is a strategy announced by DEFRA last August that food security and rural affairs minister, Daniel Zeichner, said would ultimately "allow" the government to end the badger cull and "stop the spread of this horrific disease."

In its FOI response, DEFRA said it is forming a steering group from the existing Bovine Tuberculosis Partnership to take the strategy co-designing forward. Work is still underway to complete the full list of stakeholders who will work on the strategy, so DEFRA would not disclose any further information on the basis that "the information requested is still incomplete and subject to further adjustments before it is finalised." Once complete, the list of involved parties will be published on the government's Bovine TB Partnership page, the department said.

The Bovine Tuberculosis Partnership is a group of stakeholders, such farmers and veterinarians, that works on solutions to bTB. It has faced criticism, including from former members, for being a closed shop that has failed to come up with realistic and meaningful solutions.

Lack of transparency

DEFRA's FOI response to Protect the Wild is similar to its response to another request regarding water companies last year. The Good Law Project sent an FOI request to DEFRA in September asking for information about meetings – including minutes – between ministers and representatives of water companies since Labour took office. DEFRA confirmed that nine meetings had taken place but said "we do not hold any minutes of the meetings you have asked about."

This lack of transparency from the government is deeply troubling. As the Good Law Project's Tamara Walters put it, "If ministers talk to big business, we need to know what they’re saying" to understand in whose interests officials are working.

This transparency is particularly important when the government is not living up to the expectations of the public, as is the case with the sewage scandal and the badger cull.

Starmer's government came to power promising 'change' on multiple issues. The badger cull was among them, with Labour branding the over a decade-long massacre of badgers as "ineffective" and pledging to end the cull.

But rather than ending the massacre, the Labour government has extended it by approving a whole new cull in Cumbria. On its watch, the cull licensing authority – Natural England – also authorised licences in late 2024 which allowed for the killing of over 10,000 badgers in intensive culls.

Although the government has announced some welcome changes to the status quo on the badger cull issue, such as scrapping an inherited plan for further potentially large-scale killing of the iconic mammal through 'targeted' culling, the fact remains that badgers continue to be massacred under this government in the name of tackling bTB in cows. Indeed, the government's current plans allow for culling to potentially continue up to 2029.

Significant access

Farming lobbyists have made no secret of wanting the cull to continue under the Labour government. In July last year, the National Farmers' Union president, Tom Bradshaw, spoke at a farming show in Wales. During the event, he said it would be a "tragedy" if the Labour government ended the badger cull sooner rather than later.

According to the NFU, Bradshaw was "first through the doors" for a meeting with the DEFRA secretary, Steve Reed, after Starmer appointed Reed to the position in July 2024. Bradshaw met with Reed just 72 hours after he was named DEFRA secretary. This was not the first time the two individuals had a face-to-face, as Bradshaw met with Reed in February that year when Reed was shadow DEFRA secretary.

At an NFU reception in Westminster in September, meanwhile, Reed thanked the NFU for its support for all parties during the election. He explained:

"I was all over the country being taken on visits around farms of every shape and variety and I was blown away by the quality of support we were shown."

The majority of people in England oppose the badger cull. If the government is truly committed to 'fighting for the trust' of the public, it must be transparent about its communications with industry representatives on badger cull policy matters, considering the significant access that farming lobby groups like the NFU have to officials.

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