How could Jeremy Hunt have got it so wrong on foxhunting?
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As a member of the CCHQ communications team in 2017, I had the dubious honour of witnessing the last unedifying Tory hunting saga unfold first hand. On that occasion, Theresa May — presumably desperate to get back the sort of Tories David Cameron had lost — revealed in an ill-advised interview that she was in favour of foxhunting, and would support a vote on lifting the ban if there was a majority in the Commons for it.
The backlash was immediate — and epic. A deluge of emails hit our inboxes, most of them from staunch Tories horrified and shocked that the shy, genteel Prime Minister would support the “barbaric” and “inhumane” practice. A baffled and burnt out Special Advisor came up with a one sentence response to be sent out to all, which read something along the lines of “I appreciate your concern, but let me reassure you that the legalisation of fox hunting will not be a priority for the Government in the next parliamentary term”.
It was, of course, the wrong thing to say. The thousands of anti-hunting correspondents weren’t worried that fox hunting would imminently be legalised, they were concerned — for the most part — that May’s support for the practice revealed a “nasty” side of her character, and wanted an explanation. As for the ardent proponents of fox hunting — the 400,000 who marched on the streets of London in 2004 to protest the ban — the caveat spoiled the original statement: in their eyes, the legalisation of fox hunting should be a priority for the government.
All in all, it was a lose lose episode, and there are plenty of Tory MPs who still haven’t forgiven her.
Which is why it’s so astonishing that Jeremy Hunt, who has run an admirably smooth campaign thus far, has just made exactly the same mistake. In an interview with the Chopper’s Brexit podcast yesterday, the Foreign Secretary argued that foxhunting is part of the countryside’s “heritage”, and that he would support a vote if there were a majority in the Commons for it. . . before witnessing the backlash and “clarifying” that a vote on fox hunting wouldn’t be his priority as Prime Minister.
From the very beginning of this campaign, Hunt has been blisteringly aware that a good chunk of the country see him as an urban technocrat with little understanding of rural Britain. At every possible opportunity, he’s brought up farmers and fishers (most recently proposing a £6bn war chest to help them out in the event of a no deal Brexit) and throwing his weight behind a free vote on fox hunting must have seemed, to him, like just another savvy way to scoop up some traditional Tory voters in the Shires.
If this was his calculation, it couldn’t have been more wrong. Tory voters in the shires may approve of foxhunting, but they understand that the whole point of Jeremy Hunt is that he’s more popular among the electorate at large than Boris. On those grounds alone, a handful of them will vote for him, and the rest are die-hard Boris fans who made up their minds years ago.
Meanwhile, the rest of the country — a country which is famous for its obsessive love of animals and cares little for the “cultural significance” of the hunt — has branded the Foreign Secretary as “nasty”.
The Europe issue, which has brought down four Conservative prime ministers, is the number one problem for the Tory party. But foxhunting, it seems, might soon give it a run for its money…
