Tony Blair banned fox hunting after taking £1m donation, claims Lord Mandelson
Tony Blair banned fox hunting after receiving a £1 million donation to Labour from an animal rights group, Peter Mandelson has said.
The former business secretary claimed the organisation put the then Labour leader “under pressure” to ban the countryside pursuit.
He said the debate got “pretty transactional” and said the animal rights body insisted on the ban “in return” for money.
The Labour peer did not identify the group involved, but in 1996 animal rights campaigner Brian Davies, who founded the International Fund for Animal Welfare, gave the party £1 million.
A spokeswoman for Sir Tony said on Thursday that there was “no such agreement” and that there were a lot of people with passionate views on the subject.
Lord Mandelson, seen as the architect of New Labour’s victory in 1997, made his claims on the Times Radio podcast How To Win An Election.
As part of a discussion over whether donors had put parties under pressure to change policy, he said: “I can offer you an example from 1997 where an organisation – it was a fund to do with the welfare of animals – got pretty transactional with us. It was the first and last time I remember this.
“They wanted a ban on hunting in return for a very sizeable amount of money. And Blair and Co were sort of reluctant obviously to enter into some sort of trade over this policy.
“However, there were a lot of people in the party who wanted that ban – there were a lot of MPs coming and demanding it.
“And we got into a difficult situation where frankly we went a little bit too far – further than Blair wanted – in making this commitment in our manifesto. It was, frankly, under not duress but under some sort of pressure. It wasn’t attractive and it’s not been repeated.”
Regret about the ban
Tim Bonner, chief executive of the Countryside Alliance, which opposed the hunting ban, said: “Tony Blair has already admitted that the hunting ban was one of the legislative measures he most regrets.”
He added: “The Hunting Act has failed at every level, not least in the damage it has caused to the countryside and biodiversity. A future Labour government should right the wrongs of the past and remove this running sore in Labour’s relationship with rural communities.”
Mr Davies died in December 2022, but in 2019, he said he had donated the money after a “private dinner party” with Mr Blair a year before he became prime minister.
He said: “This donation helped Labour win the election, and go on to create the Hunting Act, which they had pledged to animal lovers across the UK.”
In his memoir, A Journey, Sir Tony voiced regret about the hunting ban and its effect on rural communities.
A spokeswoman for Sir Tony said of the suggestion the ban was enacted in return for the donation: “This is a misinterpretation of what was said, there was no such agreement. He [Lord Mandelson] is clearly saying there were a lot of people who had passionate views on the subject.”
