TONY BLAIR’S attempt to appease the countryside by allowing foxhunting to continue in parts of the country looked doomed last night as Labour MPs lined up to demand a complete ban.

The Prime Minister was facing a mass revolt after announcing his backing for compromise proposals that would allow the pursuit to continue under licence in some places. The early signs last night were that Mr Blair’s support for the plan painstakingly drawn up by Alun Michael, his Rural Affairs Minister, would not result in a change in the previously decisive Commons view that hunting should be outlawed.

A final confrontation between MPs and peers on the issue appeared inevitable, with a ban likely to be imposed in early 2004.

A new Bill to be introduced by Mr Michael before Christmas will contain provisions that would allow hunting to continue only where it can be shown to be the most effective and least cruel method of pest control. Hunts would be able to apply to a new national registrar and those rejected would be able to appeal to a national tribunal headed by a senior legal figure. Stag hunting and hare coursing would be banned without question.

But Labour MPs seem certain to amend the Bill during detailed committee consideration to remove the compromise and opt for a full ban.

The Bill in that form will go to the Lords. Peers are certain to restore the compromise clauses. The result will be deadlock and the Bill will probably fall next summer.

But under pledges previously given, and repeated yesterday, the Bill would be brought back in the next session and forced through under the Parliament Act, with peers powerless to stop it.

Mr Blair had asked Mr Michael to come up with a compromise in a move to avoid a clash between both Houses and to appease countryside campaigners, but last night it was clear that the compromise was causing dismay in equal measure on both sides of the argument.

The pro-hunt lobby said that it would lead to a virtual nationwide ban by the back-door and lead to the ridiculous position where hunting in one part of the country was a criminal offence and in another it was legal. Activists are planning a series of nationwide protests.

Senior ministers said that in those circumstances Mr Blair would at least be able to claim that he had tried to avoid a 100 per cent ban but that MPs on a free vote had decided otherwise.

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