NAMES of shareholders in companies involved in vivisection could be withheld to thwart animal extremists, Tony Blair said yesterday.

Mr Blair also pledged to sign the People’s Petition, affirming his support for the right of scientists to conduct legitimate animal experiments.

After threats to backers of the drugs company GlaxoSmithKline, moves against intimidation from animal rights extremists could exempt entire companies from the legal duty to publish shareholders’ details.

Last week three animal rights extremists were jailed for 12 years each for waging a hate campaign against a family who bred guinea-pigs for medical research. Their crimes included the desecration of a grandmother’s grave. A fourth activist was jailed for four years.

But Mr Blair was accused of not acting quickly enough against animal extremists to stop them delaying plans for a new medical research laboratory at Oxford University. The contractor has pulled out citing security concerns. Evan Harris, the Liberal Democrat MP for Oxford West and Abingdon, said: “Mr Blair needs to do more than sign petitions. He needs to sign cheques that will ensure that the police and the intelligence services have the resources to break open the extremist movement.

“Although [the prison] sentences have been welcome, in truth the number of convictions remains tiny compared with the increasing number of attacks and incidents of intimidation that scientists and contractors are subjected to.”

The British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection criticised Mr Blair’s decision. Alistair Currie, its campaigns director, said: “Although Tony Blair is rightly taking a tough stand on extremists, he is wrongly taking a tough stand in defence of animal experiments.” Mr Blair disclosed that the Government was to consult on plans to keep shareholders’ names secret to protect the scientists and companies that had saved millions of lives.

Mr Blair said: “The appalling details of the campaign of intimidation — which include grave robbing — show the depths to which the animal extremists are prepared to stoop.”

The Prime Minister said that the planned Company Law Reform Bill would allow directors to keep their home addresses private to protect them from intimidation.

Companies would also be able to refuse to release the names of shareholders unless requested for “a proper purpose”. He added that the Government was considering allowing some companies to keep shareholders’ lists secret.

He added: “Announcing that I am to add my name to the online petition is a sign of how important I believe it is that as many people as possible stand up against the extremists threatening medical advances.”

The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry said: “It is extremely useful that ordinary people are standing up to these animal extremists and this is one way they can make their views known, by following Mr Blair’s lead by signing the petition.”

Jan Creamer, chief executive of the National Anti-Vivisection Society, said: “We understand this petition has only 13,000 names as compared to over 20 times that number of people who support animal welfare groups on non-animal research, plus the overwhelming public support for replacement of animals in testing.”

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