Is The New Hunting Ban Breaking Parliamentary Standards?
- dereckhoward99
- Jun 11
- 4 min read
Last month a new anti-hunting lobby group popped up calling itself the ‘The New Hunting Ban’. The group boasted a slick website, swanky London offices, a crack team of advisors, and a “Parliamentary Committee” made up of five backbench Labour MPs.
Pretty impressive.
Well, not really. Scratch beneath the surface and the professional shine around NHB quickly rubs off.
Their Central London HQ, for instance, supposedly at 167-169 Great Portland Street, is in fact a virtual office where customers can receive correspondence and rent meeting rooms by the hour – the workplace equivalent of a roadside motel.
NHB’s ‘expert leadership’ is fronted by Rhys Giles, a leader of the North London Hunt Sabs who has been filmed trespassing and deliberately leading hounds away from their trail, potentially towards busy roads. He is supported by Philip Walters, a fellow North London Sab who has reportedly received multiple convictions for drink driving.
Rounding out the crew, we have Rebecca Reddington who purports to be the NHB’s legal counsel. However, a quick search of the Solicitor Regulation Authority’s register and the Barrister’s register show no evidence that Reddington is qualified to practice law in England and Wales.
Finally, there is Operations Manager Angela Vasiliu: a diehard animal rights activist who is involved with controversial vegan pressure group ‘Anonymous for the Voiceless’. In 2019 Vasiliu’s fellow travellers were accused of ableism after claiming on social media that “service dogs and the like are still a WANT and not a need”. We know a few visually impaired supporters who would beg to differ.
NHB’s stated purpose is to enact a “watertight” ban on hunting with hounds, up to and including legislative changes to the Hunting Act (2004). However, their unregistered lobbying efforts may be in breach of Parliamentary standards; effectively rendering the group an unregulated and undemocratic entity trying to influence our laws.
What is the “Parliamentary Committee”?
On 3 June, NHB convened the first meeting of its so-called ‘Parliamentary Committee’ inside the Houses of Parliament. The meeting notably included several Labour MPs, whose role is to “ensure that the campaign remains focused, politically credible, and closely aligned with the legislative process at Westminster.” These MPs are:
Neil Duncan-Jordan (Chair) – Labour Party MP for Poole
Rachael Maskell – Labour Party MP for York Central
Perran Moon – Labour Party MP for Camborne and Redruth
Will Stone – Labour Party MP for Swindon
Sean Woodcock – Labour Party MP for Banbury
It is notable that, with the exception of Ms Maskell, all members of the ‘parliamentary committee’ were elected in 2024 and are likely not as familiar with the parliamentary rules and regulations as some of their longer-serving colleagues.
This matters because normally a cause that brings together MPs, peers, and members of the public would form an All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG): a registered entity that must report its funding, keep minutes, and elect officers according to strict parliamentary standards.
Any group that is not registered and does not conform to these standards is called an “unregistered cross-party group”. These groups have no official status within Parliament and, according to the Committee on Standards, “are not permitted to use the crowned portcullis in any form, or to use the terms “All-Party”, or “parliamentary” in their name.”
NHB’s ‘parliamentary committee’ is not a select committee or bill committee as you might read about in the news. Nor is it registered as an official APPG. It is therefore an unregistered cross-party group with no official status that is breaking official standards by calling itself ‘parliamentary’
So there you have it. The New Hunting Ban is an unregistered entity, that doesn’t appear in records from Companies House, the Charity Commission, or the UK Lobbying Register; with a fake address, an unqualified legal team, and a leadership made up of fringe figures from the hunt saboteur community. It doesn’t publish any accounts or document any donations and it has little transparency about its leadership structure.
Yet this group has been allowed privileged access to the Houses of Parliament to directly lobby members of the governing party about an issue most people in Britain think was firmly put to bed 20 years ago. And they’re breaking the rules while doing it.
Behind The Masks strongly encourages readers to report the MPs involved in NHB to Daniel Greenberg CB, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards. He can be reached at: standardscommissioner@parliament.uk
In a wonderful twist of irony, Mr Greenberg formerly served as parliamentary counsel under Tony Blair’s Labour government, with responsibility for drafting the Hunting Act in 2004. He has since said he feels the legislation was “driven more by a moral outrage angle than animal welfare” and that it was “largely an exercise in … virtue signalling.”
Alternatively, for our readers who prefer a more personal touch, you can contact the New Hunting Ban directly at 07877 471 109. It also happens to be Rhys Giles’ personal phone number – so do say hello.
