AN animal rights charity believes support for the fox hunting ban is gaining ground among the House of Lords after recording a "massive shift" in peers' views on the sport.

The League Against Cruel Sports says a recent poll by qualitative researchers ComRes shows that shows that 49 per cent of members of the House of Lords would vote in favour of a repeal of the Hunting Act, while 43 per cent would vote against.

However, pro-hunt lobbyists The Countryside Alliance says the figures are just an attempt to prop up the controversial hunting ban.

LACS, the charity that led the campaign to ban hunting, says it is encouraged by the change in peers' views.

The polling also shows that 85 per cent of peers born since 1960 oppose hunting, compared with 40 per cent of older members.

League chief executive Douglas Batchelor said: "Ten years ago, in March 2001, a bill to ban hunting failed by 317 votes to 68 in the House of Lords, and it took another three years to get the ban through.

"These new figures show how the landscape has changed – the balance of opinion in the Lords has shifted massively against hunting."

"There is a real sense of shift in both Houses, but with the government committed to a free vote on the issue we cannot be complacent.

"At a time when everyone's facing hardship and cuts, it beggars belief that some politicians want to start legalising bloodsports that the vast majority of the public find abhorrent.

"The modern House of Lords prides itself on really standing up for the views of the public and we have no doubt they'd see sense on this issue."

The league has also published figures showing that a vote to repeal the ban in the House of Commons would be lost.

The figures showed 324 MPs would vote against repeal while 261 say they would vote in favour.

However, Countryside Alliance spokesman Jill Grieve said: "The case for repeal remains as strong as ever.

"The Hunting Act is an appalling piece of legislation that simply doesn't work.

"We are confident that when Parliament returns to the hunting issue as promised, members of both houses will appreciate the strength of the case against the Act."

Polling in December by market researchers Ipsos MORI found that 76 per cent of the public support the ban on fox hunting.