Christmas and New Year are peaceful times of togetherness, celebration and reflection celebrated the world over and I hope, despite the difficult times we find ourselves in, that the festive period was an enjoyable time for you all.

Sadly, this time of year also marks a particularly dark period for animal welfare in the United Kingdom, as New Year and Boxing Day hunts rampage their way through our countryside.

The last Labour government created the Hunting Act. It’s a piece of legislation that many MPs are incredibly proud of.

Despite immense opposition in the form of the hunting lobby, it made the hunting of foxes with dogs illegal for the first time.

In spite of the Act, and unfortunately due to some legal loopholes present within it, fox hunting hasn’t entirely gone away, with many illegal hunts blighting the countryside during the period and many more ‘trail hunts’ continuing.

Trail hunting was seen as a compromise position, but in reality it’s provided a means for the killing of foxes to continue.

Natural Resources Wales, one of Wales’s largest landowners, banned trail hunting on its land in 2021, as it could not guarantee that trail hunts weren’t being used as a smokescreen to hunt foxes.

We’re a nation of animal lovers here in the UK, but barbaric fox hunts persist across the country.

It frequently endangers the lives and wellbeing of foxes and hounds alike, while hunts themselves cause untold damage on their rampage through the countryside.

The hunts themselves serve no actual utility either.

Any argument for their existence as a means of pest control completely falls apart given modern methods to protect livestock. It’s a practice which purely exists to sate the bloodlust of riders under the guise of maintaining a tradition that’s completely out of step with modern Britain.

We’re fortunate that in Newport West fox hunting doesn’t make its dreadful presence known on our streets, but you don’t have to travel particularly far out of the city before it rears its ugly head once more in the neighbouring countryside.

The last Labour government created the Hunting Act, the next Labour government will strengthen it and consign fox hunting to the history books once and for all.

My office continues to support people across Newport West.

If you have a query or require assistance, please contact me at ruth.jones.mp@parliament.uk or 01633 256268.