It’s feared a Labour law change could put hundreds of rural jobs at risk.

Nigel Farage has condemned the announcement (Image: Getty)

Nigel Farage has condemned Labour’s latest war on the countryside and rural life as “authoritarian”, as the government pledges to abolish beloved Boxing Day hunts.

Ministers are set to ban trail hunting, a legal and harm-free practice that sees hunt dogs chase after the scent of a fox rather than the real animal.

The practice was brought in following Tony Blair’s ban on fox hunting in 2004, and is often a major community event in rural areas.

Nigel Farage has blasted Labour’s pledged crackdown, branding the government “control freaks”.

The Reform UK leader, who attends his annual hunt in Kent every year, fumed: “So now Labour wants to ban trail hunting.

Nigel Farage at a Boxing Day Hunt in 2019 (Image: PA)

“You might as well ban walking dogs in the countryside as they chase rabbits, hares, deer and foxes.

“Labour are authoritarian control freaks.”

Tim Bonner, chief executive of the Countryside Alliance: “Animal rights activists have spent 20 years making increasingly spurious claims about the legal activity of hunts without any evidential basis. Trail hunting is a legal activity which supports hundreds of jobs and is central to many rural communities.

“Especially after its attack on family farms, the government should be focusing on addressing issues that actually help rural communities thrive, rather than pursuing divisive policies that hinder them.

“The government’s own figures show that more people have been convicted under the Hunting Act than any other piece of wildlife legislation, although only a tiny proportion of those relate to registered hunts.

“However unjustified it is, the law clearly works. There is absolutely no reason to revisit it other than Labour’s continuing obsession.”

Boxing Day hunts are very popular rural community events (Image: Getty)

Left-wing animal rights activists have claimed that foxes are still killed by dogs during trail hunting, though there is little evidence of this.

Labour’s animal welfare minister Baroness Hayman claimed there is also evidence that trail hunting is used as a “smokescreen” by hunters, which is “not acceptable”.

The RSPCA’s Thomas Schultz-Jagow welcomed the announcement, saying: “Every year, wild animals, pets and horses suffer whilst being chased and killed by packs of hounds on trail hunts while rural communities endure antisocial behaviour and intimidation.

“There is mounting evidence that, since the Hunting Act came into force in 2004, ‘legal’ trail hunting is being used as a smokescreen to illegally hunt with dogs. This has made enforcement of the Hunting Act extremely challenging for the authorities.”