High court rejects claim badger cull ban was due to Carrie Symonds

The High Court today rejected farmers’ claims that Boris Johnson decided to ban the badger cull because of Carrie Symonds as it refused an attempt to overturn the decision.

Lawyers representing the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) said the September 2019 ban was ‘irrational’ and the real reason for the decision was because Prime Minister Boris Johnson took a ‘personal interest’.

They told Mrs Justice Andrews that lobbying by Badger Trust chief executive Dominic Dyer included meeting Mr Johnson’s partner, Ms Symonds, in Downing Street.

Environment Secretary George Eustice disputed the claims, denied that the decision was irrational and said the challenge should be dismissed.

Badgers had previously been culled in an attempt to stop them spreading bovine tuberculosis (TB) but the Government called a halt to the practice following campaigning by anti-animal cruelty activists and said it would vaccinate them instead.

Mrs Justice Andrews, who analysed arguments at a High Court hearing over Skype in April, today ruled in his favour. She dismissed the NFU challenge and concluded that the decision was not irrational.

NFU deputy president Stuart Roberts said the ruling will have a ‘chilling effect’ on farmers looking to engage with the Government on TB policy and said he planned to continue the legal fight.

‘If the Government’s arguments in this case are right and it can disregard its own policies at the final second, how can farmers ever trust again that the Government will do what it says it will?’ he said.

‘We are considering our next options with our legal team and with the affected farmers in Derbyshire.’

Mr Roberts said the decision had left him ‘shocked and dismayed’.

‘The actions of the Government last September amounted to a complete U-turn on established government policy,’ he said.

‘The eleventh-hour direction by the Secretary of State was made against absolutely all the scientific and veterinary advice and left farmers in the Derbyshire area, who met all the licence criteria, completely devastated.

‘Many of them had seen this cull as their last hope at dealing with this awful disease which has been devastating their cattle herds and crippling their business for years.’

He added: ‘It remains our view that it simply cannot be lawful for the Government to make policy up on the hoof. Affected farmers invest a huge amount of time and money applying for a licence and they are entitled to have their application dealt with fairly.’

A spokesman for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs welcomed the ruling and added: ‘The Government remains committed to its strategy to combat bovine TB which leads to the slaughter of over 30,000 cattle every year and considerable trauma for farmers.’