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Reading Labour Party is claiming that members of the Vale of Aylesbury with Garth and South Berks Hunt have been coming to Reading to deliver leaflets for Reading West Conservative candidate Alok Sharma, who has pledged to vote to lift the ban on fox-hunting if he is elected to succeed Labour's Martin Salter.
Martin, of course, played a leading part in the Parliamentary battle to end this barbaric sport.
Labour has evidence that hunt supporters met at least twice in the car park of the Southcote pub on Bath Road (see photo attached) and that Mr Sharma himself turned up with the leaflets and gave them their instructions.
Naz Sarkar, Labour's candidate for Reading West, says: "My Conservative opponent doesn't do public statements much - so people know very little about what he stands for - but he has obviously made a private commitment to the hunt lobby, else they wouldn't be coming into Reading West to work for him!
"I think cheering on dogs who are tearing a live animal to pieces is a piece of barbarism which has no place in modern society. This revelation calls Mr Sharma's values into question as well as his judgement, and leads me to wonder how many other secret pledges he has made in return for people's support."
Anneliese Dodds, Labour's candidate for Reading East, adds: ""The Tories' commitment to make Parliamentary time available to repeal the ban on fox-hunting is just about the only policy they have announced - that and their cuts to inheritance tax for the 3000 richest estates. I'm saddened, but not surprised, to hear that Reading's Tories are receiving help from those who want to see this cruel practice return".
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