A LABOUR government will liberate lemurs and free the marmosets: the party announced sweeping pledges yesterday on keeping and trading pet primates.

The policy promise would mean a clampdown on the estimated 5,000 primates kept as pets such as marmosets, capuchins, squirrel monkeys and lemurs.

Labour says that these animals are highly intelligent, social animals that are far too similar to humans to be kept in captivity, and that primates taken from their mothers at a young age are liable to become depressed and psychologically unwell.