Rishi Sunak vows to maintain killing badgers to save lots of cattle

Rishi Sunak has vowed to keep killing badgers to prevent cattle from catching disease from them.

The PM said badger culls “have to be part of the solution” for preventing the spread of bovine tuberculosis to cattle. Speaking in a Q&A with farmers during a campaign visit to north Devon, Mr Sunak said: “The success of the badger culls where we’ve done them have brought the incidence rates down by just over 50%, so that shows that that plan is working.

“I believe in the science. And yes, of course a vaccine is good and we’re investing in research and development but that is going to take some time. So culls have to be part of the solution.

“And particularly when it comes to badgers, when you look around the world, there’s no country that I think I know of where they’ve eliminated TB in cattle without eliminating it in, whether it’s possums or badgers or the equivalent wildlife, which is why I think culls are important.”

The Lib Dems criticised Mr Sunak’s courting of farmers and said it “too little too late”. The party’s rural affairs spokesman Tim Farron said: “This Devon dash is too little too late for Rishi Sunak. Farmers and rural voters are deserting him in massive numbers.

“Farmers have been utterly taken for granted by the Conservative Party, left to cope with sky-high bills, bungled policies and botched overseas trade deals… It’s clear that people are moving away from the Conservatives and backing the Liberal Democrats in many seats to kick them out of office.”

Mr Sunak said it had been “a real privilege” to understand the contribution farmers make to society. “Now, I grew up in Southampton, and I didn’t come from a farming background,” he said. “So it’s been a real privilege to understand the contribution that you make to our society.”

A government release in March said: “Bovine tuberculosis is one of the most difficult and intractable animal health challenges that England faces today, causing devastation for farming and rural communities and leading to tens of thousands of cattle being culled each year.” It set out proposals to retain badger culling as an option in high risk areas where evidence suggests badgers are part of the problem in the spread of disease to these herds.