Labour is risking another countryside clash by pressing ahead with its manifesto pledge to ban trail hunting.

As thousands gather for traditional Boxing Day meets, the Government has confirmed it will outlaw the practice of hounds and riders following an animal scent laid across the countryside.

The Department for Environment, Rural Affairs and Food (Defra) claimed trail hunting is being used as a ‘smokescreen’ for illegal activity, 20 years after the previous Labour government banned fox hunting.

A spokesman told the PA news agency: ‘This government was elected on a mandate to introduce the most ambitious animal welfare plans in a generation and that is exactly what we will do.

‘We are committed to a ban on trail hunting, which is being exploited as a smokescreen to cruelly kill foxes and hares.’

Emma Judd, head of campaigns at the League Against Cruel Sports, agreed, saying: ‘It’s 20 years since the Hunting Act was passed but, since then, figures we compile consistently suggest hunts still chase and kill foxes as they did before the ban.

‘Hunts may claim they are following a pre-laid animal scent trail, known as trail hunting, but this has been shown to be nothing but a smokescreen to conceal old-fashioned illegal hunting.’

Labour MP Dan Norris, who chairs the anti-hunting group, urged ministers to ‘listen to the majority view, including in rural areas, to close the legal loopholes that allow needless cruelty to animals, and implement a proper ban on hunting once and for all’.

But Tim Bonner, chief executive of the Countryside Alliance, claimed trail hunting was irrelevant to most people and it would be ‘extraordinary’ for Labour to focus on it given the anger among rural voters over its inheritance tax raid on farms.

He said: ‘Given where the government is in its relationship with the countryside already, frankly it would seem extraordinary that they’d want to double down on an issue which really doesn’t matter.

‘It’s one of those elements that brings the rural community together and to remove that through an act of spite, if that was to happen, would be something which I think people would react extremely badly to.’

Joe Emmett, master and huntsman of the South Devon Hunt, said: ‘The hunt plays an important role in our local community and meets like Boxing Day are the perfect opportunity for locals and visitors to the area to come together.’