Why do Conservatives keep talking about ending the ban on hunting?

Politics Explained: Jeremy Hunt has become the latest prominent Tory to enter the debate

(PA)

They cannot help themselves. Jeremy Hunt was asked a harmless question about his view on fox hunting, by Christopher Hope, the chief political correspondent of The Telegraph. Instead of saying that his priority in No 10 would be, as an entrepreneur, delivering Brexit, he answered it.

He pointed out that there is no majority in the House of Commons for changing the law. He could even have stopped there, and moved on to another subject. But no, he went on to speculate about what might happen after the next election: “I would as soon as there was a majority in parliament that would be likely to repeal the fox hunting ban, then I would support a vote in parliament.”

There was still one last chance to pull back. Allowing a free vote in the Commons has been the official party fudge for some time. But he went further. Possibly thinking “tally ho” to himself, he said how he would vote: “I would vote to repeal the ban on fox hunting. It is part of the countryside. And we have to recognise that in terms of the balance of the countryside. You know, it’s part of our heritage.”