Beneath crisp blue skies, huge numbers of people turned out to support hunts across Britain, campaigners said yesterday.

The Countryside Alliance estimated that 300,000 people had gathered at hunts - evidence, it said, that the mood was shifting in favour of a repeal of the ban on hunting.

Hunting with dogs became a criminal offence in February 2005, although exercising hounds, chasing a scent trail and flushing out foxes to be shot are all still legal. Antihunting groups countered that the success of hunts yesterday was further proof that the ban should remain in place.

Boxing Day has long been an occasion for the two sides to clash, but there were no reports of trouble yesterday - nor any signal from antihunting groups monitoring hunts that the rules of the ban had been breached.

On the fourth Boxing Day hunt since the ban was imposed in Parliament, about 6,000 people attended one gathering in Chipping Norton, near Oxford.

Tim Bonner, of the Countryside Alliance, said: “The master of the hunt there reported that this was the largest crowd he had seen in 35 years.” Gerald Sumner, huntsman of the Aylesbury with Garth and South Berks Hunt, said: “We had a couple of thousand people on Cholesbury Common. When the lady master of the hunt gave her speech thanking everyone for coming in support of a repeal of the ban, there were huge cheers.”

He said the turnout had been helped by “perfect hunting weather”, on a cold day of clear skies.

Mr Bonner, who attended the Quorn Hunt, near Loughbrough, in Leicestershire, said a crowd of 4,000 spectators had turned out to watch 120 riders set off across the fields.

He said: “We have seen huge crowds, most just coming along to support. Traditionally, but especially over the last four years, we have seen bigger and bigger crowds.

“They are attracted by the fact that there is a growing likelihood that we can get rid of this legislation. People really had something to shout about this year. But the livelihoods of all involved can only be sustained by this committed support from the public.”

Antihunt campaigners argue that the majority of the British public remains opposed to fox hunting, however. An Ipsos MORI poll published in September for the League Against Cruel Sports said 72 per cent thought fox hunting should stay illegal.

Douglas Batchelor, chief executive of the league, said: “If hunts are hunting legally and attracting record support, why on earth do they want a repeal of the Hunting Act and why are they so reluctant to be monitored?”

Mr Bonner rejected the suggestion that illegal hunting was common, but said the ban was a mess. “I believe the vast majority of people are trying to stay inside what is a very complicated law,” he said. If the Conservatives won the next election the law would change, he added. “At the very least, next year will be the penultimate Boxing Day under the Hunting Act.”

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