3.2 pm
Animal Welfare Bill
4:00 pm
Ben Bradshaw (Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Local Environment, Marine and Animal Welfare), Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; Exeter, Labour)
I do not intend to bite the hon. Gentleman’s bait on free votes. The Government have made their position clear, particularly on tail docking, to which he referred. We had a long debate on that matter on Tuesday afternoon. We listened; we said that we would listen to the views of Parliament. I think I said on Tuesday that, should the issue be raised in the Chamber, we would not consider it an appropriate one for Government whipping. However, if the hon. Gentleman is asking me to say that we would not strongly encourage Government Members to resist him hanging lots of baubles on the Bill and other issues, I am afraid that I cannot satisfy him in the affirmative.