Carrie’s court victory to kill off badger cull
Judge rejects farmers’ claim she convinced Boris to make ‘irrational’ call
A DECIsIoN to end a badger cull after Boris Johnson’s fiancee intervened was not ‘irrational’, the High Court has ruled.
the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) took legal action when plans to exterminate badgers in Derbyshire were stopped by the Government.
It claimed ministers had been swayed by the personal views of Carrie symonds, who is well known for opposing the killing of thousands of badgers in the countryside as part of measures to stop the spread of bovine tB.
the NFU argued that the badgers were ‘devastating’ local farming businesses, and wiping out cattle.
Campaigners claimed that the views of miss symonds, 32, who recently had a son Wilfred by the Prime minister, had led to the ‘irrational’ ending of the practice in Derbyshire. lawyers representing the NFU said the reason for the U-turn last september, from an earlier decision to kill badgers in the county, was because mr Johnson had taken a ‘personal interest’ in the case.
they said the Pm caved in to the anticull lobby after Badger trust chief executive Dominic Dyer met him and his fiancee in Downing street.
the Badger trust opposed the cull starting in Derbyshire because there was a pilot scheme where badgers were being vaccinated against tB instead of being killed. After the meeting, the Pm encouraged the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to take a second look at the policy.
At the High Court, Environment secretary George Eustice opposed the NFU’s claim that the decision to stop the cull had been ‘irrational’.
mrs Justice Andrews, who analysed arguments at a hearing over skype in April, has now ruled in his favour.
she said that far from being irrational, if a vaccinated badger were killed it would be a publicity disaster for the Government. she said: ‘Even if the decision could have been characterised as a capitulation to the anti-culling lobby (which in my view would not be a fair reflection of the evidence) at the end of the day a political judgment had to be made about whether it was worth risking the fallout in terms of adverse publicity and the loss of goodwill among such lobbyists if a vaccinated badger was killed by mistake. there was nothing irrational about concluding that it was not.’ After the case, NFU deputy president stuart Roberts said: ‘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?
‘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’. He added: ‘many of the farmers 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.’
mr Dyer said: ‘the Badger trust is pleased to see the Prime minister played a crucial role in the decision making process which saved thousands of badgers from being cruelly shot in Derbyshire last year.
‘the Prime minister was no doubt influenced by his fiancee Carrie symonds in this case.’
‘Worth risking the fallout’