With the current parliamentary reshuffles going on, the HSA shooting team takes a look at the influence of shooting interests in parliament in recent times.
As has been widely covered in various HSA exposes, as well as by Animal Aid and more recently End Bird Shooting the pheasant and partridge shooting industry would struggle to survive at scale without industrial game bird farming. Many exposes have shown that birds trapped on game farms suffer similar uses and abuses to any other animal found on a factory farm. Who would have thought that a past time of wealthy landowners would receive a pretty large helping hand in getting their sick thrills.
Code of Practice sets the Paice for game birds
DEFRA has a Code of Practice which outlines so-called best practice throughout the industry, though its conditions are barely legally binding. The contents of this Code of Practice were largely shaped by Tory MP James Paice, who was also a director of the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT), as well as a member of the British Association for Shooting & Conservation (BASC). One of his first tasks as a DEFRA minister was to withdraw a Code of Practice which would have prevented keeping pheasants in cages for their entire egg laying lives. Effectively making game farms far less productive. Paice then chaired a meeting to redraft this code. Funnily enough, attendees were largely on the pro shooting side and a new code allowing pheasants to remain caged was laid before parliament two weeks after Paice resigned from the GWCT. Shortly after leaving politics, he became chair of the GWCT. The influence of this organisation and it links to horrific stink pits on a shooting estate have been well documented.
As of May 2026, Paice’s tenure as GWCT chair ended. His replacement, Jeremy Finnis, has also worked in the Ministry of Agriculture. Finnis also manages the Dell Estate on Loch Ness in Inverness-shire which was voted one of the top 10 Scottish Shoots by The Field magazine. Finnis is also Deputy Lieutenant of Essex, part of an age-old hierarchical structure designed to report to the monarch.
Perhaps it should be no surprise that the APHA – the body responsible ‘for safeguarding the welfare on animals on farms’ – didn’t inspect a single game farm in Wales between 2023 and 2024. Even less surprising is that Animal Aid went on to discover horrendous sights on three Welsh farms; including single housed birds, illegal waste dumps and birds in appalling conditions in 2025. Very similar to the issues found at Heart of England Farm, Warwickshire in 2019 and 2025 and many other shooting related sites.
In October 2012, during Countryside Alliance member Richard Benyon’s tenure as minister for wildlife and biodiversity, he reportedly refused to outlaw the possession of Carburofan, a chemical commonly found to have been used against poisoned raptors. According to Green Party MP, Caroline Lucas, ‘The minister’s shocking refusal to outlaw the possession of a poison used only by rogue gamekeepers to illegally kill birds of prey would be inexplicable were it not for his own cozy links to the shooting lobby.’
Revolving door
It’s clear that it is incredibly useful for bodies such as the GWCT and BASC to have a revolving door between parliament and their offices. But who might be next on the bloodsport lobby carousel? Robbie Moor, MP for Keighley and Ilkley and shadow DEFRA minister for the Conservatives is a trustee of the GWCT. Meaning he is part of the team responsible for guiding the organisation’s direction, while also being able to push issues such as grouse moor burning in parliament.
Newly elected member of the BASC council, Lydia Castellano, works as an advisor to MP for Bridlington and the Wolds, Charlie Dewhurst. Both spend a good amount of time promoting shooting within the Houses of Parliament. Whether it be Castellano’s Women in Westminster Shooting Club, or the Countryside Alliance drop in on firearms licensing sponsored by Dewhurst in December 2025.
The fight continues
It probably isn’t too surprising that those involved in the upper echelons of the two leading shooting organisations are all aligned with the same party. Stephen Morant, GWCT trustee, has made donations to the Conservative party. While ‘top Tory Donor’ David Mayhew sits alongside him and Baroness Minnette Batters, when she isn’t in the House of Lords.
Despite the bias towards shooting in the halls of power. The pressure is growing on this profit driven blood sport industry, which masquerades as conservation for the benefit of the few.
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