Lords bombard flagship Animal Sentience Bill

Speak to battle-scarred Tory veterans of the 2017 snap election and they’ll regale you with horror tales about animal sentience. A little-noticed vote to reject the inclusion of the subject in the Withdrawal Bill quickly blew up into one of the major election issues, with the Independent running viral articles on the subject with inflammatory headlines that were widely shared all over social media sites. Some still credit the issue with helping to denying Theresa May her much-craved majority in that election.

In the years since then the Conservatives have handled the issue of animal welfare with extreme caution, well aware of its political volatility. Indeed shortly after the election, the then Environment Secretary Michael Gove introduced a bill on this subject but was forced to overhaul it after MPs noted it would open every government policy to judicial review. Three years on, the idea has now been resurrected in the recent Queen’s Speech, forming the flagship bill in a threadbare legislative programme.