A LABOUR MP in Newport has presented a Bill to ban the import of animal fur products to Great Britain. Ruth Jones, the MP for Newport West and Islwyn, presented a Private Members Bill to Parliament on Wednesday, October 16, calling for the ban of the import of animal fur products to the UK. Mrs Jones was one of 20 MPs to have their name successfully drawn in this year’s Private Members (PMB) ballot.
These bills give backbench MPs such as Mrs Jones, to bring forward draft legislation for MPs to vote on. The issue surrounding the import of animal fur is close to Mrs Jones’ heart, as she was the Labour Party’s shadow minister for animal welfare prior to this summer’s , a role in which she helped to scrutinise the Conservatives’ record on this issue. Her Bill comes an astonishing 21 years after Tony Blair’s Labour government outlawed fur farming 2003, despite which it is currently still legal to import fur into the United Kingdom and sell it.
The bill proposes to extend existing bans on trade in fur from cats, dogs and seals to include foxes, raccoon dogs, mink, chinchilla, coyotes and other animals killed for fur fashion, and prevent the import and sale of all animal fur. If passed into law, the ban would end the UK’s complicity in the cruelty of the global fur trade. Ruth Jones has pledged to help put an “end to this hypocrisy” of banning fur farming more than two decades ago while it remains legal to import the products from overseas, and has dedicated the Bi.