LABOUR will launch a set of radical proposals today on animal welfare that include introducing a ban on the export of live animals for slaughter, strengthening the Hunting Act and implementing a review of testing on animals.

The party is also proposing the appointment of a new animal-welfare commissioner to ensure government policy is informed by the latest scientific evidence on animal sentience and to safeguard animal welfare standards in new legislation and post-Brexit trade deals.

The draft policy document, Animal Welfare for the Many, Not the Few, suggests enshrining the principal of animal sentience in law, ending the government’s culling of badgers and introducing mandatory CCTV in all slaughterhouses.