South Scotland MSP and Scottish Labour Animal Welfare spokesperson Colin Smyth has warned that the government’s new fox hunting law risks creating new loopholes.

The Bill, published recently, strengthens fox hunting laws – but it is also set to introduce a licensing scheme to allow hunts to get around the tighter new rules.

The Scottish Labour party has pledged to remove this loophole, to deliver a real ban once and for all and make this the “last tally ho” for fox hunting.

Colin Smyth said: “For almost a decade now hunts have gone out of their way to ignore the fox hunting ban in letter and in spirit.

“This long-awaited Bill is a chance to right this wrong at last and put a stop to this needless cruelty – but this Bill doesn’t go far enough.

“The SNP’s needless licensing scheme will create new loopholes as we are trying to close the old ones.

“You cannot license cruelty and Scottish Labour will fight to scrap this loophole.

“We need to make this the last tally-ho for hunting and consign this archaic ‘sport’ to the history books once and for all.”