Fears over Brexit 'backdoor' for trophy hunters to bring home sick souvenirs

05 February 2023 , 16:31

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Fears over Brexit 'backdoor' for trophy hunters to bring home sick souvenirs

Campaigners have moved to ease fears British trophy hunters could use Northern Ireland as a “backdoor” to bring home their sick souvenirs.

Legislation which will block hunters importing bringing animal skins, severed heads and carcasses back to Britain after shoots abroad is going through Parliament.

The Hunting Trophies (Import Prohibition) Bill, led by backbencher Henry Smith, is due back in the Commons on March 17.

It is expected to be supported by ministers, paving the way for it to become law.

But Democratic Unionist Party MP Sammy Wilson, who backs the ban and helped scrutinise the Bill, fears the ongoing dispute over the Northern Ireland Protocol - the post-Brexit system designed at preventing a hard border along the 310-mile frontier between the province and the Republic - could allow hunters to bring trophies into Britain.

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Campaigners say the loophole can be close with the stroke of a minister's pen (Getty Images/Johner RF)

Mr Wilson, whose party opposes the controversial mechanism that effectively draws a trade border down the Irish Sea, said: “The legislation could only apply to Great Britain and not to Northern Ireland because of the Northern Ireland Protocol.

“I have raised concerns that Northern Ireland could become the avenue through which trophy hunters could smuggle their trophies into the rest of the United Kingdom and called upon the Minister to address this issue.

“Only by addressing the issues of the Protocol can this loophole be closed.

“It is another reminder of how the Protocol does not only affect Northern Ireland but affects the Government’s ability to pass laws which are effective in the whole of the United Kingdom.”

But Eduardo Goncalves, founder of the Mirror-backed Campaign to Ban Trophy Hunting, said:

"The Government can stop Northern Ireland's trophy hunters from being exempted with a stroke of a pen.

“The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland can issue a ministerial decree saying permits to import hunting trophies will no longer be issued.

"Opinion polls clearly show that people in Northern Ireland are as appalled by this disgusting trade as everyone else in the UK, and the Bill enjoys the support of all of Northern Ireland's Westminster MPs.

“It would therefore be outrageous if trophy hunters in Northern Ireland were still allowed to get away with murder."

Ben Glaze