Prime Minister David Cameron's government has stirred up a political storm by announcing a vote this week to loosen a decade-old ban on fox hunting.
Officials noted the change to the 2004 Hunting Act would be a purely technical move to end discrepancies between Scottish and English law. However, the intended change had the opposite effect, dividing the U.K. by placing class against class and English lawmakers against Scottish ones, Agence France Presse reported.
The law bans the pursuit and killing of foxes with dogs, but farmers can still use hounds to "flush out" the animals to be shot as a means of pest control and wildlife management.
An example of the discrepancies this law has can be seen with the amount of dogs a farmer can use, depending on their region. Farmers in England and Wales are only allowed to use two dogs, but the amendment would have allowed them to use packs of hounds like Scottish farmers do, according to Newsmax.
Those in favor of the ban remaining include celebrities like Ricky Gervais, Sadie Frost, Brian May of Queen and Paul McCartney, the last of which warned Cameron that bringing back "cruel and unnecessary" hunting would lose him support, according to the Associated Press.
The separatist Scottish National Party announced Monday that it would oppose a change in the ban, despite having promised to vote only on issues that affect Scotland. The move wouldn't have much of an impact on the political party, but it would've hurt the government's chances of winning the vote on Wednesday.
The government abandoned the plan since it became clear to them that it would fail. This loss has given the government extra incentive to pass promised reforms barring Scottish lawmakers from voting on bills that only affect England - a controversial plan dubbed English Votes for English laws, according to BBC News.
The proposal would make Scottish lawmakers "second-class citizens" in the House of Commons.
A vote on the English Votes for English laws proposals is due after Parliament returns from its summer break in September.
