West Cornwall MP, Andrew George, fears that the Government will carry on with their policy of culling badgers even if independent scientific evidence is that it will make matters worse.

Questionning the Environment Secretary, Rt. Hon Owen Patterson MP, in the Commons today, Mr George, who is planning the first community-led badger vaccination project in the country in Penwith later this year) said: “If the independent expert panel concludes that the pilot culls were ineffective then what will the Government do?”

Mr Patterson refused to say that the Government would stop the cull but simply referred to "selective international evidence" to suggest that the Government were going to proceed with a continuation of the cull anyway.

Mr George said: “There is no point in appointing an independent panel of experts to advise Government Ministers if they are not prepared to accept their advice. I expect that the independent panel will conclude what most people already know that these pilot culls stand a very high probability of making the problem of Bovine TB significantly worse.

"It would be foolhardy and irresponsible for Government Ministers to press on with a failed policy which would only put our farmers’ livelihoods in even greater jeopardy.”