Boiling lobsters while they are alive and conscious will be banned as part of a government strategy to improve animal welfare in England.
Government ministers say that “live boiling is not an acceptable killing method” for crustaceans and alternative guidance will be published.
The practice is already illegal in Switzerland, Norway and New Zealand. Animal welfare charities say that stunning lobsters with an electric gun or chilling them in cold air or ice before boiling them is more humane.
A ban would build on a law introduced by the Conservatives in 2022, which stated that invertebrates including octopus, crabs and lobsters were sentient and felt pain as much as other animals.
Ben Sturgeon, chief executive of the charity Crustacean Compassion, welcomed the plans, saying: “When live, conscious animals are placed into boiling water, they endure several minutes of excruciating pain. This is torture and completely avoidable. Humane alternatives, like electrical stunning, are readily available.”
Other changes in a long-awaited Labour strategy announced on Monday include outlawing hen cages and pig farrowing crates, ending puppy farming, consulting on banning electric shock collars for dogs and introducing humane slaughter requirements for farmed fish.
The proposals also tighten the rules on hunting, with a ban on shooting hares during the breeding season and an end to trail hunting, where an animal-based scent trail is laid for dogs to chase while riders follow on horseback.
Labour pledged in its manifesto to extend the 2005 foxhunting ban to trail hunting. Animal welfare charities say trail hunting is being deployed as a “smokescreen” to carry on killing foxes.
Nigel Farage, the leader of Reform UK, said the move was “authoritarian control freakery”. He added: “You might as well ban walking dogs in the countryside as they chase rabbits, hares, deer and foxes.”
Polling suggests that voters overwhelmingly support tougher rules on hunting, although Reform voters are more divided. According to findings from YouGov last year, 29% of the party’s voters thought that hunting wild animals was acceptable, compared with 65% who thought it was not. Just 21% believed hunting with dogs should be allowed.
A Labour source said: “When it comes to being in touch with the priorities of working people, the horse has very much bolted for Nigel Farage. Time and again, he’s putting himself on the wrong side of issues which will keep the former Tories he’s stuffing his party with happy, but will do nothing to deliver a fairer future for Britain.
“While Farage focuses on defending hunts that are often used as a smokescreen for killing wild animals, Labour is dealing with outdated laws which permit poor animal welfare practices. And at the same time we’re cutting the cost of living, reducing waiting lists and delivering the change working people voted for.”
The Green party largely welcomed the government’s plans but said ministers could go further by ending greyhound racing, which faces a ban in Wales by 2030.
• The headline of this article was amended on 23 December 2025 to clarify that this ban will apply to England, not the whole of the UK as an earlier version stated.
