Dear Lee,
I am writing to ask you to attend a Westminster Hall debate on the afternoon of 30 June where a parliamentary petition will be debated as the petition gained over 100,000 signatures. It is a petition close to my heart, indeed I was one of the three directors of the campaigning group, Wild Justice, who submitted the petition.
I have recently stepped down as a director of Wild Justice but I will attend the debate on that day. The petition calls for a ban of driven grouse shooting and this is the third time such a petition will have been debated in parliament – but the first under a Labour government. The first was under my name, and the second was another Wild Justice petition from myself, Ruth Tingay and Chris Packham. Wild Justice is a not-for-profit company and its registered office is my home, and therefore in your constituency. There are no grouse moors in Corby and yet your constituents provided 157 signatures supporting the petition – a few signatures more than the number needed across each of the 650 UK parliamentary constituencies for such a petition to merit a debate. It would be much appreciated, and very appropriate, if you attended at least a part of the debate.
There are many reasons why intensive grouse shooting in the uplands of the UK, places such as the North York Moors and Royal Deeside, is environmentally damaging and bad for the tax payer (see here). I have been campaigning on this issue for over a decade and have written a book on the subject Inglorious: conflict in the uplands (click here).This debate is an opportunity for the Labour government to give a commitment to do something about an issue which the Conservatives and Reform will never tackle. Organisations such as the RSPB supported the petition and they will brief MPs to try to achieve licensing of grouse shooting – that would be a step forward but we will eventually end up having to ban this Victorian activity which is for the few at the expense of the many. I imagine it will be Mary Creagh who responds to the debate in Westminster Hall – Labour needs to make some friends on environmental matters and this is an opportunity.
You may be interested to see that the three constituencies with the highest signature counts are Sheffield Hallam (Labour seat since Nick Clegg left in 2017, Olivia Blake MP), Derbyshire Dales (Labour win from Conservatives in 2024, John Whitby MP) and High Peak (marginal regained by Labour in 2024, Jon Pearce MP). All have areas of grouse shooting in the Peak District (Sheffield Hallam and High Peak – large areas).
Apologies for a long message. If you’d like more information or briefing on a point you might make in the chamber then please let me know.
I will remind you of this debate closer to the time.
Yours sincerely,
Dr Mark Avery
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Something has gone awry with the paragraph spaces above – I’ll try to fix during the day.
But, more importantly, I had a rapid and positive response from my MP. Thank you, Lee!
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