It is more than a decade since I first stood up in Parliament and spoke in support of a ban on live animal exports.

Many of us in Crawley have consistently supported further animal welfare protections and a stop to animals enduring unnecessary exhaustion and injury on long journeys.

These calls would invariably be met with a form of words ultimately affirming that Britain’s membership of the European Union meant that Parliament was unable to take such decisions for itself.

One referendum and two General Elections later – in both 2017 and 2019 I stood on a manifesto commitment to address the issue of live animal exports – and almost 11 years to the day since I first highlighted the issue in the House of Commons, last month the Government formally introduced the Animal Welfare (Livestock Exports) Bill.

Now that we have left the European Union, we can fulfil the Government’s manifesto commitment to end excessively long journeys for slaughter and fattening.

The legislation will ban the export from Great Britain of cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, and horses for slaughter and fattening.

This commitment can now be fulfilled upon Brexit.

The Government legislation will make it an offence to export livestock and horses for slaughter and fattening, beginning in or transiting through Great Britain to a third country.

The Bill will also provide powers to ensure the Government can introduce a robust and proportionate enforcement regime across Great Britain.

This country proudly contains some of the strongest animal welfare regulations on the planet. The passing of the Cruel Treatment of Cattle Act 1822 marked the first legislation on animal welfare in the world, and the UK ranks joint top of World Animal Protection’s Animal Protection Index.

The Animal Welfare (Livestock Exports) Bill will go to strengthen British animal welfare protections further by stopping stress, exhaustion and injury resulting from the cruelty of the unnecessary slaughter and fattening export trade.

The Bill will ensure animals are slaughtered domestically in our high-welfare slaughterhouses. I pursued for some years the importance of CCTV at such sites and it is welcome that this is now mandatory at slaughterhouses in England.

The last exports for fattening or slaughter took place in December 2020 and have not done so since. What this legislation will do is ban them permanently.

Ahead of its introduction in the House of Commons last month the Bill was announced in the King’s Speech during the State Opening of Parliament in November.

During the subsequent Commons debate on the King’s Speech I reiterated the cruel nature of how live animals would be transported; causing them great distress over considerable distances. Let us end such brutal treatment of animals permanently.

Henry Smith MP