Leicestershire MP David Tredinnick has tabled an Early Day Motion congratulating a Yorkshire sheep farmer for using homeopathic remedies on his flock and calling for more research into the practice.

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Homeopathy is a field of alternative medicine predicated on the doctrine of "like cures like" (for example, that a substance that causes the symptoms of a disease in a healthy body will cure similar symptoms in someone who is unwell). Homeopaths use highly dilutes solutions in their treatments.

Tredinnick's unorthodox views have caused controversy in the past. His appointment in January this year to the Science and Technology committee sparked a series of objections, and, as part of the committee, he locked horns with the government's outgoing chief scientist Sir John Beddington in March over another call for more research into homeopathy.

In the EDM he sponsored earlier this month, Conservative MP Tredinnick congratulated Lester Peel, whose pedigree sheep were treated using homeopathy, with apparently positive results, and called on the government to fund research into the potential for homeopathic disease prevention in farm animals.

There are around 140 homeopathic vets in Britain, though opinion on the alternative treatment is deeply divided and the British Veterinary Association remains staunchly sceptical of the practice.

The full text of the EDM reads:

That this House congratulates Yorkshire farmer Lester Peel for being awarded the J Parlour and Son Perpetual Challenge Trophy for the Champion Suffolk sheep at this year's North Yorkshire County Show; notes that Mr Peel has been a sheep farmer for about 40 years and is owner of award-winning pedigree sheep; regrets to hear that it has been a particularly difficult 12 months for sheep farmers with Mr Peel losing more than 20 lambs to the Schmallenberg virus and also having problems with worm infestations amongst the flock; observes that he decided to turn to homeopathy and has since seen positive results from the homeopathic remedies he has included with the feed for his flock; and calls on the Government to carry out a study into the level of homeopathic usage by farmers, what results have been achieved and what potential homeopathy offers for prevention of disease amongst livestock.