Minister's aides are pro-hunt campaigners

Two key advisers to Alun Michael – the minister who will oversee the fate of proposed legislation to ban fox-hunting – are prominent voices behind the pro-hunting campaign.

Mr Michael, a Home Office minister, was flanked at last week's parliamentary hearings on hunting by Dr Pete Robinson, formerly of the pro-hunting Conservancy Game Trust, and Matthew Heydon, the author of a contentious pro-hunting report.

The Conservancy Game Trust gave evidence claiming hunts spent an estimated £1.4m a year on conservation, opened up rides and small glades that were of value to flora and butterflies.

The trust also cited three regional studies to show that culling suppressed fox numbers. One of the studies, which dealt with the situation in rural upland Wales, was written by Mr Heydon. Scientists, however, have disputed evidence that hunting makes any contribution to habitat or wildlife, arguing that it could even have a negative effect.

Anti-hunt campaigners say the backgrounds of Mr Michael's two advisers add to concerns that the Government has already cut a deal with the pro-hunt lobby. That deal could see a ban on stag hunting and hare coursing but would either fail totally to ban fox-hunting with hounds or give hunts the option of carrying on their activities under regulation by local tribunals.

Such "compromises" would come as a deep disappointment to the Campaign for the Protection of Hunted Animals – the umbrella body bringing together anti-hunt campaigners from the RSPCA, the International Fund for Animal Welfare, and the League Against Cruel Sports. It would also anger Labour backbenchers and Labour Party supporters who now view the Government making good its pledge to ban hunting as a matter of trust.

But the anti-hunt campaign is worried that "complacency" is growing among Labour MPs, who believe they can amend a Government Bill on hunting – a move that would in reality require repeated acts of public defiance against their own party leadership – once it has been put before Parliament.

And they are concerned that a big show of support for hunting interests at the Countryside Alliance march through London next Sunday could have undue sway on politicians. One anti-hunting campaigner said: "Clearly there is flexibility in the Government's approach and the Countryside Alliance pressure is moving the Government in that direction because MPs are taking this complacent view that the Bill can be amended."

However, some fear that if, as expected, 180 Liberal Democrats and Tories join the "payroll vote" of ministers to back a Government Bill that fell short of a total ban, it would take 95 per cent of the remainder to push through an amendment. While the anti-hunt campaign has always believed that the Government would ban hunting, a source admitted: "We are not as confident as we were two or three months ago."

Now plans are under way in the anti-hunting campaign to try to take the sting out of the 22 September march.