Hampstead’s own Ricky Gervais is well-known for his passionate animal rights activism, but Hampstead and Kilburn’s new Labour MP Tulip Siddiq has yet to make a similar name for herself in the field of animal welfare.
However, in an unlikely match, the pair recently teamed up to lobby the government to drop the controversial vote on relaxing fox-hunting laws.
The unusual duo will be feeling rather smug this week after Prime Minister David Cameron announced on Tuesday that he will postpone the free vote in the face of almost certain defeat.
They were joined by Mr Gervais’s partner, the novelist Jane Fallon, in co-signing a letter to Mr Cameron urging him to withdraw plans for a vote on Monday.
They wrote: “There is no public appetite for a change in the law, and there would be little public sympathy if the government were to devote further parliamentary time to debating such an issue.”
As it stands, traditional fox-hunting in Britain is illegal. In England, hunts can use two dogs to flush out foxes from bushes for pest control reasons.
The relaxing of the Hunting Act 2000 would remove the cap on the number of dogs used to flush out foxes for pest control purposes.
But Mr Cameron postponed the vote after SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon said her MPs would block the move. It is thought the vote will be suspended until the government passes legislation to give English MPs a veto on “English-only” laws.
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