The Tories are planning to ditch plans to ban imports of fur and foie gras. I implore them to reconsider.

As the Member of Parliament for Gower, animal welfare is very important to me, and I have long supported the banning of both fur and foie gras imports.
 
That's why I was horrified to read that some senior government ministers want to ditch plans to ban imports of fur and foie gras.
 
The Government had announced they were exploring a ban on fur and foie gras in May 2021 when they launched their “flagship new Action Plan on animal welfare,” however reports in the national press seem to indicate Boris Johnson and his cabinet are getting cold feet over the proposals.
 
It’s laughable but not surprising that Boris Johnson's position is so weak he can be pushed into a u-turn by cabinet members like Jacob Rees-Mogg, on an issue where he had the support of the vast majority of the public.
 
Britain has a proud history of defending animal rights and as a nation we led the way in abolishing fur farming. However we still contribute significantly to this cruel and outdated global trade by importing and exporting tens of millions of pounds’ worth of fur and fur products each year.
 
Shockingly, millions of animals are bred and killed for fur, living their short lives in miserable, painful confinement or trapped in the wild and left in agony for long periods before being killed. It is barbarous and unnecessary. We cannot go on being complicit in this inhumane practice and it should be banned at the earliest opportunity.
 
The production of foie gras on UK soil has, in my view, rightly been banned since 2000, but imports have sadly not been banned and the UK imports in the region of 200 tonnes of foie gras each year. It is time this was ended.
 
Our Prime Minister is paralysed by scandal and this has only emboldened the more extreme elements of his government who see this as an opportunity to advance their animal cruelty enabling "libertarian" agenda.

​It would be a great betrayal of animals for the government to say that freedom of choice for the tiny minority of people who want to buy fur and foie gras should trump our morals and values as a nation of animal lovers.