Beyond party discipline: UK Parliamentary voting on fox hunting

In the second term of the New Labour Government, the issue of fox hunting occupied 700 hours of parliamentary time and received extensive press attention. This article shows that the hunting case reveals a different pattern than that found for voting on other conscience issues in the UK parliament, with party an almost perfect predictor of voting in the two main parties. In examining this outcome, we focus on way in which the issue played in both the main political parties during the passage of the Hunting Bill. In the Labour party, the strength of backbench support for the Bill overwhelmed the ambivalence of the frontbench. In contrast, the Conservative Party became more united as a response to the increased politicisation of the issue by Labour backbenchers and increased extra-parliamentary political activity by the Countryside Alliance.