Responding to the admission today by Environment Secretary Owen Paterson that he intends to extend the Government’s badger cull, Shadow Environment Secretary Maria Eagle MP, said:

“Owen Paterson has let it slip in his local newspaper that he intends to roll out the government’s discredited badger cull across the country.

“An Independent Expert Panel concluded that the current pilot badger culls in Somerset and Gloucestershire were ineffective and inhumane yet David Cameron’s government is determined to waste more public money on them.

“Bovine TB is one of the most important issues facing farmers today. It is a scourge and a threat to their livelihoods but rather than work in a bi-partisan way and focus on a science-based solution to the problem the Government is determined to press ahead with a failed strategy that has let farmers down.”