Maria Eagle MP, Labour’s Shadow Environment Secretary, responding to the decision to grant an extension to the badger cull trial in Gloucestershire, said:

“It is Owen Paterson who is now moving the goalposts on his failed culling policy, not the badgers as he ridiculously claimed. Extending the length of these trials is nothing more than an attempt to rig the outcome to achieve what is clearly his pre-determined conclusion. The Government should now abandon this unscientific and misguided approach to the vital task of eradicating TB from cattle.”