Shadow Farming Minister Daniel Zeichner has pledged to end the badger cull in England if Labour are elected in the next general election. Badgers are culled to eradicate bovine tuberculosis, a disease which spreads through cattle and can purge entire herds. 

Badgers are one of several mammals which can be infected with and transmit the disease. They are protected under the Protection of Badgers Act 1992. However, licensed culling is allowed to prevent the spread of bovine TB.

A report released by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs indicated that at least 33,627 badgers were killed in England in 2022. This brings the total up to more than 210,000 badgers since the cull began in 2013.

Labour is absolutely determined to eradicate Bovine TB in England by 2038.

Zeichner said, ‘Labour is absolutely determined to eradicate Bovine TB in England by 2038. The distress caused to farmers by this horrible disease deserves no less.’

He went on to note that ‘The Godfray Review commissioned by the Government in 2018 made a strong case for improved biosecurity measures and vaccination as the best way to achieve this. Scientific advances and changing attitudes to vaccination convince us that this is the best way forward – we will be guided by the expert advice.’

‘As Godfray cautioned, relying on badger culling risks distracting from the real goal – eradicating Bovine TB,’ said Zeichner. 

The Godfray Review indicated that the presence of infected badgers is indeed a threat to local cattle herds but suggested that a programme of vaccination may be more ethical.

This move would follow in the footsteps of the Welsh government, who ended the general cull under the Labour government in 2012.

Welsh policy involves regular cattle testing, badger vaccination and improved biosecurity measures for cattle.

Author of a paper on the effectiveness of the badger cull, and head of policy at the Born Free Foundation, Dr Mark Jones supports Labour’s commitment to ending the killings. 

We are urging all political parties to commit to following this lead, and ending the cruel, costly and ineffective culling of badgers in England.

Speaking to The Guardian, he said: ‘We are urging all political parties to commit to following this lead, and ending the cruel, costly and ineffective culling of badgers in England’. He encouraged ‘focusing instead on cattle-based measures and the introduction of cattle vaccination.’

This comes after his 2022 paper concluded that there was no link between the badger cull and any decline in the level of bovine TB in cattle herds. Research is divided as to the effectiveness of the cull, but Jones criticised the government’s reliance on an ‘unreviewed study’, claiming it has ‘many caveats’.

Labour’s pledge greatly contrasts that of Conservative Environment Secretary, Thérèse Coffey, who has shared that her department will continue the cull. Her predecessor, George Eustice, had promised to end the cull by 2025.At a media briefing at the Royal Welsh Show in July, Coffey said: ‘I’m not going to be held by some artificial deadline that has already been put in place. We will keep culling for as long as it is the best way to do that.’

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