Having previously hinted that the party could drop the Coalition's deeply controversial badger culling policy if elected, Labour ministers have this week confirmed that the party will abandon culling if it comes to power in 2015.

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Shadow farming minister Huw Irranca-Davies told attendees at an NFU Fringe meeting, being held at the Labour Party Conference in Brighton, that, if the party is successful in the next general election, it would abandon the current government's culling policy. The shadow minister said public money would be better spent on developing an oral vaccine than supporting badger culling activity.

Mr Irranca-Davies continued that, even if culling was shown to reduce bTB by 16 percent (after nine years), as promised by the incumbent government, in the eyes of Labour leaders this reduction would not be sufficient to justify the continued slaughter. He pointed to the opinion of the Independent Scientific Group, which assessed the findings of previous trials and concluded that culling can make "no meaningful contribution" to efforts to combat TB.

The Shadow minister welcomed stricter cattle measures brought in by Defra. Wildlife groups opposing the cull have supported these measures, including the voluntary risk-based trading scheme, but often claim they are 'too little, too late.'  

Although the Coalition and the NFU maintain that culling is essential in order to combat bovine TB in wildlife, the policy and chosen methodology of targeting free-running badgers has attracted widespread condemnation, including from expert scientists who oversaw the decade-long RBCT trials under the previous Labour government.    

Also speaking at the fringe event, NFU president Peter Kendall said Labour needs to come up with "something more meaningful" than promises to invest in vaccines if ministers hope to truly tackle bTB and win over dairy farmers.

In her speech to the Conference, delivered yesterday, Shadow environment secretary Mary Creagh also said a future Labour government "won't be rolling out the disastrous badger cull."

Reacting to the start of the first culling trial in Somerset on 27th August, Ms Creagh said, "The Government's divisive badger cull will cost more than it saves. We need a science-led policy to manage cattle movements better and a vaccine to tackle TB in cattle. Ministers should listen to the scientists and drop this cull which is bad for farmers, bad for taxpayers and bad for wildlife."

However, although Labour has now categorically stated that it would abandon the cull if elected, ministers previously suggested they may allow the two pilot culls, which have already begun, to continue. It remains unclear whether a Labour government would halt the trials in Somerset and Gloucestershire, which the government claims are assessing the humanness and efficacy of 'free-shooting', though not the policy's effect on TB rates in the two zones.