Hunt radicals make Cherie Blair a target

Renegade fox hunting supporters yesterday vowed to target the Prime Minister's wife, Cherie Blair, in a continued campaign of threats, lawlessness and violence against those in favour of a blood sports ban.

In an interview with the BBC, an anonymous pro-hunt protester confirmed Mrs Blair was now a target, saying: "I am prepared to target anybody who is not prepared to listen to common sense."

He claimed the PM's wife had "manipulated" her husband into voicing support in principle for a hunting ban.

The Countryside Alliance has been keen to distance itself from protesters who are ready to break the law, fearing their actions could overshadow and discredit today's massive Liberty and Livelihood march in central London.

But militant pro-hunting groups, who as The Independent on Sunday revealed last month, plan to target Labour MPs, national sporting events and the Houses of Parliament, appear to be plotting violent outbreaks. Yesterday, BBC Radio 4's Today programme ran interviews with disaffected pro-hunt campaigners who even threatened to use a bomb to "safeguard a way of life".

After today's march, protesters plan a demonstration at the Labour Party conference, with a "concerted attempt to bring gridlock" to Blackpool next week. A data-base of Labour MPs who have been outspoken in favour of a ban is also being compiled.

The Rural Affairs minister Alun Michael yesterday insisted these were matters for the police. About 1,600 officers will patrol today's march. Mr Michael said the Government was looking at the future of hunting in an objective way.

A spokesman for the League Against Cruel Sports said: "These are people who only a year ago were claiming a mantle of respectability ... This is a direct challenge to parliamentary democracy."

Leading Countryside Alliance members are also being targeted by militant animal rights activists. Fresh threats were made to the homes of Alliance officials, financial backers and supporters when their addresses were allegedly posted on an anonymous website and distributed to members of the militant Hunt Retribution Squad.

The threats to disrupt the Labour conference came as the delicate truce between the Government and the Countryside Alliance collapsed yesterday, in a row over Labour MPs' right to attend the march.

Senior Alliance officials rounded on the Margaret Beckett, Secretary of State for the Environment, and Mr Michael, after they suggested Labour MPs had been told to stay away, effectively making the event an attack on the Government. John Jackson, the Alliance's chairman, dismissed this as "poppycock". But the Alliance's director of communications, Nigel Henson, stoked up the row by claiming that since the majority of Labour MPs had voted to ban hunting, they were automatically barred from attending.

Mr Henson said that anyone, regardless of party affiliation, could attend the march if they endorsed its principles, including supporting the right to hunt. But he added they were not allowed to "pick and mix" which of the principles to support.