Badger cull: Taxpayers fund £56,000 handout to cull company after vaccinations go ahead – but inoculated animals may still be shot

Exclusive: Derbyshire firm reimbursed for expenses after plan changed following reported intervention of Carrie Symonds, Jane Dalton writes

The disease is a huge burden to farmers and costs the UK taxpayer £100m a year in compensation pay out (Getty/iStock)

Taxpayers paid more than £56,000 in compensation to a badger culling company after a cull was cancelled in favour of mass vaccination in the area.

But now even inoculated animals will probably be shot under a huge expansion of the cull that for the first time takes in Derbyshire – the number-one county for vaccination of the legally protected species.

The expansion is despite the government announcing in March that culling would be phased out in favour of a vaccination programme.