Stella: one foxy lady

WE haven't seen much of the Countryside Alliance here in Blackpool apart from their stand in the exhibition hall, which is outnumbered by more than a dozen other ones representing animal-welfare organisations.

As well as campaigning for selection to be Labour's Mayoral candidate I've also stayed in touch with my friends in the animal- welfare movement. If I become Mayor, this issue will be high on my agenda. In recent months, I presented a petition to Downing Street with Stella McCartney.

A Mori poll has proved what many of us have been saying.

That is that the Alliance's march on London was essentially a Tory party rally. The poll, conducted among people on the march, showed that 82 per cent of them were Conservative voters and only four per cent Labour.

I have a message for all of them. There is a large crossparty majority for an outright ban on hunting with dogs in the House of Commons, and that's where the decision will be taken, not on the streets of London.

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