The Home Secretary Theresa May has advised Defra chief Caroline Spelman to hold back on her decision to carry out a badger cull next year. The home secretary reportedly said that, should the government go ahead with its decision to kill thousands of badgers, police resources may be overstretched. image expired

May said that, as the cull would coincide with the 2012 Olympics under Defra proposals, there may not be enough police to deal with the added burden the games and protests against a cull would bring. She is also reported to have warned Ms Spelman that the policy could be fatal for her political career.

As well as causing controversy by saying she was “strongly minded” to carry out a cull before the consultation period, the environment secretary had to apologise in parliament earlier in the year after the hugely unpopular plan to sell off public forests backfired. According to the Daily Mail, Theresa May told Spelman, “You need to think of your career before pressing ahead with this.”

Ministers are now awaiting a report from police chiefs over the implications of the two major policing events running concurrently. The public consultation period on Defra’s bovine TB proposals closed last month. Documents submitted over the course of the consultation are now being considered and the government is expected to make a decision later in the year.