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In early August, Great Britain's Labour Party filed a legally required report detailing donors to the party. Among the donors listed, was an anti-hunting group, the Political Animal Lobby, which donated almost 50,000 pounds to the Labour Party only a few weeks before Tony Blair had formally announced that his party would seek another vote in Parliament on a measure to ban hunting.
In April, while the Labour Party was in the middle of drafting its election manifesto, the Political Animal Lobby donated 30,000 pounds. In June it chipped in an additional 17,582 pounds.
In the previous election, various animal rights groups donated about 1 million pounds to the Labour Party to help its election efforts.
Labour did introduce a bill to ban hunting, but while it was approved overwhelmingly by the House of Commons, it was blocked by the House of Lords. Labour plans to reintroduce the bill, and animal rights groups are betting that with the election behind him, Blair will act to overrule the House of Lords if it again blocks the hunting ban.
Fifty thousand pounds, after all, is nothing to sneeze at.
Source:
Anti-hunting group donated pounds 50,000 to Labour. Marie Woolf, The Independent (London), August 8, 2001.